Quest for Power Series 3: The Truth about Tecna
by hansbmd
Summary: The girls have just returned from Lynphea, but Tecna's the only one not overjoyed, for the simple fact that she's not a princess. When she gets kidnapped, she discovers a startling truth about herself that'll change her life forever. TecnaxTimmy
1. Prologue: Attack on the Castle

Hey everyone! Here's the next fic in the Quest for Power Series. I'm sorry if you don't recognize it at first, but I did warn you I was going to change the title. I'm also sorry it took me so long to get this up, but I'm in college, so I don't have quite as much time to write. But I will get on as often as I can, I promise. Now this prologue isn't very long and I'm sorry for that, but it sets the groundwork for what's going to be my story. And don't worry, this is the last prologue in the series, you won't have to sit through any more of them. Although there is a history lesson you're going to have to sit through in about two fanfics, which will explain more or less the whole series. But I'm not going to give you any details now, happy reading!

**Prologue: Attack on the Castle**

One thing that most realms have is an heir to the throne. That was one thing that the realm of Zenith did not have for a very long time. The King and Queen were very upset at the fact that they didn't have an heir, because if they didn't, then they would have to turn the rule of the realm over to someone else, to a family of a less than savory nature. Then finally, a child was born, a young girl. Her parents could tell right away that she was going to be an extremely gifted and very bright young woman. When her mother sensed a strong presence within her, she could tell at once what it was and knew that she would have to protect her daughter no matter what. She was named Tecna.

When she was six months old however, the castle was attacked by a prince named Paritho, one who wanted to rule all the realms. He decided to start with Tecna's realm, a realm he knew had a secret power that only members of the royal family could control. His plan was to kidnap the baby princess, hypnotize her, get his servants to raise her and then make her retrieve her powers, which were hidden in the realm until she was old enough to control them. He was planning to put a spell on her that would make her serve him always, never being able to break free or think for herself. Then when she was old enough, he would marry her.

"She will be mine," he would say to himself. "And once she's my wife, her power will be mine. I'll marry her, she'll hand her powers over to me, then she and I will rule all the realms together. It doesn't help that she's probably going to turn out to be a fairy. If she were a witch, that would make everything a whole lot easier. It wouldn't be as hard to hypnotize her and keep her in my control, but I can handle this."

When he was sure that he had enough power to overcome the realm's defenses, he attacked, hard and fast going straight for his target. He didn't waste a lot of time with the guards either. He knocked out the realm's defenses in one blow, then invaded the palace and immediately began to look for the baby princess. However, when he attacked, the King and Queen knew exactly what he was after and hid the princess away, leaving one of their servants to look after her while they fought him off.

The poor maid could hear everything happening above her. She was hidden in a secret room under the palace with the child, protected by several spells, which she hoped would be enough to keep Paritho from finding her and her charge. She held young Tecna to her chest, and whispered soothing words to her, saying things that even she herself didn't believe.

"Relax child," she said. "Please be quiet, I don't want him to hear us."

But she knew that the villain wouldn't hear the baby crying over the sounds of the battle. But they still scared her greatly. She dreaded seeing what the place would look like when the battle ended. She just shut her eyes and tried to tune the whole thing out by humming a lullaby, but she couldn't do it.

Paritho, meanwhile, was attacking with everything he had, destroying bits and pieces of the palace, searching for the princess, but never finding her. He was getting more and more frustrated, but he didn't let that get the better of him.

"I've underestimated how clever the King and Queen are," he said to himself. "They've hidden her well, but they can't hide her forever."

Unfortunately for him, the King was a very good warrior, and met Paritho in the palace. The two men circled each other, speaking for a few minutes before the fighting actually commenced.

"Where is the princess?" asked Paritho.

"She is safe," said King Richard. "She's in a place where you will never find her."

"Give her to me and I will spare this pitiful realm from total annihilation."

"Stay away from my daughter," said the king in a very dangerous voice.

Paritho had no intention of doing any such thing. "I want that child," he said.

"You shall not have her!"

A dark cloud formed next to Paritho and he pulled from it a long, black, curved sword. He took it in his right hand and raised it in front of himself. The King, though not fond of fighting, knew how to handle a sword and removed his own from its sheath. The two of them swung hard at each other, their swords clashing every few seconds, neither one managing to break the other. They stepped back, each breathing hard, swords still raised.

"I didn't think you'd be very good with that," said Paritho, gesturing at the king's sword. "But you are, much better than I would have thought. Impressive."

"Don't think you can flatter your way out of the life-long imprisonment you'll be getting when this is over."

"Don't you get overconfident, it may just blow up in your face."

The king charged at him again, but Paritho was several inches taller than him and a third his age, making him much more agile. He swung hard and fast, knocking the king's sword out of his hands. Letting his own sword fall to the ground, he walked forward, while the king stepped back.

"I told you not to get overconfident," said Paritho. "But people just don't listen to me. Now, do you have any last words?"

"Stay away from my husband!" rang out a voice from other end of the room. The queen had arrived, and she was angrier than she had ever been before, angry at him for attacking her husband, for endangering her home, for his attempt to take her daughter away from her. She fired a burst of energy at him, but he deflected it. He did the same thing when she tried again.

"You both are quite pathetic," he said, moving towards her. "But you will show me where you have hidden your daughter, then you're both going to be destroyed."

"You will not touch her," said the queen, in a voice of deadly calm.

Paritho chuckled amusedly. He had to admire her conviction, but she must know that doom was imminent. But just as he was about to deliver the final strike to her, he felt something wrap around his ankles and he fell to the ground. He'd forgotten that the king was still conscious, and he had pulled out a coil of rope and thrown it at the young prince.

"You're going to wish you hadn't done that," said Paritho, using his magic to untie himself. But now, he'd forgotten about the queen, who had ample opportunity to strike at him now. She pounded several energy balls at him, each one hitting him in the back and he fell to the ground, injured and weak. Even though she did not have the power of the realm, she used her strongest imprisonment spell to trap the evil prince underneath the ground, which she hoped would be enough to hold him forever, though she knew better than to hold her breath.

Paritho was stripped of his powers and sealed away forever, but he knew that one day he would get his power back, and when he did, he would go after the young princess again. He would have her if it was the last thing he ever did.

The king and queen knew this as well, and they also decided it would be better if Tecna didn't know what happened until she was older. That would mean never knowing she was a princess.

"Do you really think this is a good idea?" asked Queen Tatiana. "We're concealing her birthright from her. When she finds out, she's going to be shocked. I think we should raise her here and tell her what happened."

"If we tell her now, she'll spend the rest of her life wondering when Paritho is going to escape," said the King. "And if we raise her in the palace, she'll find out at a very young age. It's better that she grows up away from all of that, until she is ready to find out all about it."

"When do you think it will be a good idea to tell her?" asked the Queen.

"When she's 19," said the King.

"19? That's too long. Paritho could escape anytime between now and then," said the Queen. "He'll go after her the moment he escapes and no matter where she is, he'll find her. We'll have to tell her sooner than that, especially when he finally does escape."

"He's never going to escape," said the King. "The spell is too strong."

"Believe what you want," said the Queen. "But she'll never be completely safe."

So the two of them came to an agreement. They bought a small house in a neighborhood, across the realm from the palace, under assumed names. They put spells on Tecna, so that she would never find out she was the princess, and would always remain ignorant of her parent's work.

In the mornings, the King and Queen would go back to the palace and do their royal duties and would come back to the house in the evenings to be with Tecna. They sent her to school everyday and she grew into a very smart young lady. When she became old enough, they sent her to Alfea.

But a few days after she started her junior year, almost sixteen years since the initial attack, Paritho finally had enough power to escape from his prison and he did just that. He knew what had taken place all those years ago. He knew that Tecna had no idea that she was a princess or what she was capable of. He could sense that she was in the realm of Magix and decided to go after her and get his revenge on the entire realm.

"Get ready Tecna," said Paritho. "This is going to be a wild ride."

Okay, so there's the foundation laid down, and like I said, it's the last prologue. In the next chapter, it'll be sixteen years after the attack and we're back in present day Magix with the six girls at Alfea, and Guinevere coming to join them. And like I said in the end note of the last fic, if you haven't read the other two, do it now, otherwise you won't know who Guinevere is or what the heck is going on. Stay tuned!


	2. Chapter 1: Surprise Party

Hey everyone! This chapter isn't going to have action or anything in it, it's just a friendship chapter between the Winx girls, and a celebration for Guinevere. It's good that she finally has friends, isn't it? But you're also going to find out something that's going to carry through the rest of this fanfic. And if you read the prologue, there should be no doubt what that thing is. Happy reading!

**Chapter 1: Surprise Party**

If one looked over the cliff at the Alfea School for Fairies, it would seem like just another magical school. But what they couldn't possibly know that inside was a group of fairies who were fighting evil in order to protect the entire magical universe. They had already encountered numerous evils and were going to face even more in the coming weeks.

One set of dorm rooms awaited its occupants to return from their journey to Lynphea, where one had learned of her true heritage and met her long lost cousin, who lived in the neighboring realm. It was a remarkable experience, one that none would forget for a very long time.

In a flash of light, they were back. The six fairies of the Winx Club, Bloom, Stella, Flora, Layla, Musa and Tecna landed softly in the common room that connected all their rooms. Each one collapsed onto a couch or armchair, all of them dog tired from the whole experience and ready to get back to their schoolwork, which was surprising for a few of them to admit even to themselves. They knew their work would be hard, but it would be a nice change of pace after their last adventure.

Flora especially wanted things to get back to normal. She was the one who had just found the true power concealed within her heart, the Power of Lynphea, and learning how to use it had cost her a bundle of energy. Even though she'd had her friends and her boyfriend, Helia, there to help her, she had thought she wouldn't pull through. But right now, she didn't want to think about anything that had to do with that mission. She wanted to get back to normal so she could concentrate on work and show her cousin Guinevere around Alfea and Magix. She couldn't wait for her to arrive.

"What's going to happen to Guinevere?" asked Bloom, after a moment of silence. "Is she going to learn about what it takes to become Queen of Rampara or is she going to join us here or what?"

"She's going to learn how to be a fairy," said Flora, perking up at the idea of her cousin learning how to properly use her Winx, as well as the Power of Rampara. "Being under a curse for most her life, she only knows what it's like to be a witch, but not a fairy, and she told me she's ready to be a fairy. She starts here tomorrow."

"Really?" asked Tecna.

"Yeah, she's spending today making sure everything's all right in Rampara and she starts learning how to use her Winx tomorrow. I think she should have just come straight here, but her mother wanted her to help clean the realm up before she came. She looked like she wanted one more day there anyway. There was something worrying her the last time I spoke with her, but she wouldn't tell me what it was."

"What more does she have to worry about?" asked Musa. "Her biggest worry is gone."

"You have a point Musa," said Flora. "It's great that she no longer has to worry about that awful curse plaguing her day and night, being a good fairy one moment and an evil witch the next. I'm just happy I was able to free her from it."

"We're all glad you were able to free her Flora," said Layla. "She's a great friend."

"And now that's she going to start at Alfea, we'll get to have all sorts of fun with her," said Stella. "We can show her around Magix, take her shopping at all the best malls, take her to all the coolest attractions in the realm and best of all, set her up with someone special from Red Fountain. I have a ton of guys in mind that would be just perfect for her, and since she was a witch for awhile, she needs to get a boyfriend. I mean, seriously, she needs to know what it's liked to be loved, not continuously despised."

"She may or may not go on one of your blind dates Stella," said Flora.

"Why not?" asked Stella.

"Maybe because they don't always turn out that great," said Musa, thinking of her date with Jared.

"Yeah, but she'll have other reasons," said Flora, remembering what they had seen in the Room of Time in the palace. Flora and Guinevere had both seen themselves being crowned the Queens of their realms. By that time, they both would be married and Guinevere had seen the features of her future husband. She would know the boy when she saw him, she just had to wait for him to find her. Flora wondered if that boy was in Magix at that very moment, attending classes at Red Fountain perhaps. If he was, she'd have to remember to keep an eye out for him whenever she visited the hero school. She agreed with Stella in one instance, Guinevere needed to know what it was like to be loved by someone else.

Flora had seen herself being crowned Queen of Lynphea, with Helia right there next to her about to be crowned King. She had always known in her heart that she and Helia were destined for true love, and the thought that they would marry by the time she ascended the throne gave her great joy.

"What do you mean Flora? What other reasons?" asked Bloom.

"I can't tell you that," said Flora, with a smile on her face. She was spared more questions by the bell ringing, meaning that morning classes were starting. She didn't want to risk what would happen if the rest of the girls found out about it.

"Let's go hit the books," said Tecna. "We must have a lot of catching up to do."

"I _so_ don't want to study," said Musa. "I hate studying."

"We know that Musa," said Bloom. "But technically, there's nothing you can do. We have work to do."

"It's a good thing we had breakfast on Lynphea then," said Layla. "Because I think we wasted it lying around here the last ten minutes."

The girls gathered up their books, and spent that entire day in class, learning how to do new spells and make new potions. By the time they got back to their dorms, all six of them were worn out.

"I hope Guinevere's ready for all this work they pile on us," said Musa. "Is she going to be in the freshmen class?"

"Believe it or not, she's going to be in our class," said Flora. "She has so much power that Ms. Faragonda put her right here with us. She's going to be bunking in with you Layla."

"That's awesome, but she's going to have three times as much work to do as us," said Layla. "Skipping two classes isn't going to be easy for her. I should know; I skipped one. I hope she can handle it."

"You know I can," said a voice coming from the doorway. A girl with dark blue eyes and long black hair, the top half pulled back in a braid, stood in front of them. She was wearing a white skirt and a deep green peasant top. But what stood out the most was the necklace she had just gotten from her mother, which was a gold choker, made of glittering gold rectangles, with a blue-green diamond hanging down. It sparkled around her neck, making her look even more beautiful, even more royal.

"Guinevere!" they said together. She hugged all her friends, smiling broadly.

"It's so good to see you!" said Bloom.

"It's great to see you guys too," said Guinevere.

"Where'd you get that necklace, it's really beautiful," said Flora. After a minute, she recognized it. She remembered seeing it in the Pool of Infinity when they were watching the creation of their two realms.

Guinevere touched the necklace and said, "it was a gift from my mother for my seventeenth birthday. It belonged to the first queen of Rampara, Queen Isabella. Don't laugh, but I feel like she's with me when I wear it."

"We're not going to laugh," said Musa. "I have a few possessions from my mom. I think she's still with me sometimes, particularly when I look at the last few gifts she gave me before she died." They could see at once that they needed to change the subject and fast. Musa always got a sad look on her face when she talked about her mom, and now she was tearing up a little bit, which was a very un-Musa thing to do.

"It's good you have that necklace at any rate," said Stella, who was taking the opportunity to divert the conversation to her favorite topic: shopping. "It'll help enhance your natural beauty, so now all we have to do is get you a new wardrobe and makeup job. I'll take you into Magix this weekend and we'll get everything done for you. Your hair looks good like it is, and hmmm, no, you don't need more jewelry. Anything combined with that necklace will be overpowering. At least you don't look nearly as plain now as you did when we met."

She had said too much. Guinevere crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows, saying, "plain? What do you mean by plain?"

Stella gulped. She hadn't meant that to sound quite as negative as it had. "I just meant that when you first walked up to us in the quad, you just looked so ordinary in that skirt and blouse. You didn't look a thing like a princess, and I commented to the girls about how we'd need to do fix you up with something to make you look less plain. And that necklace does the trick. You really look like a princess now, or at least, you look less like a commoner."

That comment hit home. "I look like a commoner? Is that what you're saying?"

"In the nicest possible way though," said Stella, beginning to sweat a little bit, which was not good for her makeup. She began thinking to herself, "all right, someone had better change the subject before I get so hot and sweaty that my makeup starts running."

Luckily for her, the girls wanted to get off that subject as well, all too tired to think about shopping.

"We're so glad you're here," said Tecna. "You're going to love Alfea."

"I hope so," replied the fairy of diamonds. "I'm a little nervous."

"Don't be," said Flora. "This is a wonderful realm, you're going to love it.

"I hope you're right cousin," said Guinevere, smiling at Flora.

"Cousin?" asked the girls together.

"Did I forget to mention that in the course of the adventure Guinevere and I found out we were cousins?" asked Flora. The girls nodded and Flora said, "well it turns out that the first queen of Guinevere's realm was the daughter of the first queen of my realm."

"I see, so with all the blood lines and marriages in the family, it makes you cousins," said Tecna. Flora nodded. The rest of the girls began commenting on how it was cool that they'd found out they were related, and what a weird coincidence it was. None of them noticed Stella sneak off to her room, a sneaky little smile on her face.

Tecna was the only one who didn't think that Flora and Guinevere being cousins was a coincidence, but she didn't say anything. She didn't want to sound strange or superstitious.

But there was something else bothering her. She had sounded cheerful when speaking to Guinevere, but she was hiding a secret. She was a little bitter that she was the only one of the Winx girls that wasn't a princess. Bloom found out she was heir to the throne of Sparx when Icy, Darcy and Stormy cornered her on Earth, Stella was the Princess of Solaria, Layla was the Princess of Tides, Flora was Princess of Lynphea, Guinevere was Princess of Rampara and Musa was Princess of the Harmonic Nebula. Well, since her father had been disowned by his royal family, she had lost her title as princess, but something told the fairy of technology that she would regain before too long. Tecna's realm however, a realm called Zenith, didn't have a princess. As far as she knew, it didn't have an heir to the throne at all.

"Are you okay Tecna?" asked Musa, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"I'm fine," said Tecna, quickly making up an excuse as to why she was being so distant. "I was just thinking about our next adventure. You know Ms. Faragonda said there was more danger coming at us. I want to know which of us it will strike next." Musa, being Tecna's roommate, knew there was more to it than that, but didn't say anything.

"I forgot about that," said Layla. "Who do you guys think is next?"

"What are you talking about?" asked Guinevere, looking at them a little nervously. The girls explained what Ms. Faragonda had told them the previous term, about how they all had more powers than they thought and each would go on a different adventure.

"You and Flora just had your adventure by freeing your realms from all that darkness," said Bloom. "But Flora's the only one of us who's conquered the evil up against her. I'm a little nervous about which one of they're going to go after next. I want all this to end."

"You and all the rest of us Bloom," said Flora.

"Wait a minute," said Guinevere suddenly. "I remember something Icy, Darcy, and Stormy said after I had retrieved the Power of Rampara. I was trying to get the hang of it, when I heard them talking a few feet away, whispering to each other. I didn't hear the entire conversation, but what I did here was Darcy say something about when they were going to sneak away from me and report back to the others. I wondered who the others were, but then they came back to me and began picking a fight with me to get me to test my new powers on them. I thought it was strange that they were doing that, but I was more than eager to begin using my magic, so I complied."

"Do you know what they were talking about?" asked Musa.

Guinevere shook her head. "I wish I did."

"Can we please talk about something a little more pleasant?" asked Stella, popping her head through the door of her room. The rest of the girls all jumped, none having noticed that she was gone.

"Where have you been Stella?" asked Bloom.

"I've been getting something set up for you guys, particularly for your enjoyment Guinevere," replied Stella. "Come in and see."

The girls curiously got up and went into Stella's room. When they got there, they each started laughing; Guinevere's mouth dropped open. Stella had used her famous party spell to decorate the room in less than five minutes. It was a theme of diamonds to commemorate the fairy that Guinevere really was. Sparkling stones, some of them precious ones such as rubies and sapphires, but the majority were diamonds, glittering at them from every corner of the room. A cake was sitting in the middle of the room, just waiting for them to dig in.

"Stella, you did all this?" asked Guinevere.

"Happy Late Birthday," replied Stella smiling. "Sorry we don't have any presents though."

"That's all right," said Guinevere. "Just being here with you guys is the best gift I could wish for."

The girls all gathered in for a group hug, glad to know that no matter what happened, they would always have each other. When they separated, they each made a dive for the cake, ready to eat it until there wasn't even a single crumb left. At the end of the night, they all shouted, "Happy Late Birthday Guinevere!" She had tears of joy in her eyes, glad to finally have friends.

**Author's Note:** There's another chapter down. Guinevere's really sweet as a fairy, I'm glad I decided to throw that detail in there. You'll never believe this, but when I went to write this series, I never thought I would write it like this, with Guinevere being Flora's cousin. It just came to me. I have epiphanies very often when I write, and usually with a little development, they turn out really well. You'll see another one later in the story after a few things have happened to Tecna. But the important thing to remember from this chapter is that she's bitter that she's not a princess. Remember that, it's going to come in handy when she finds out that she's the princess of her realm. Stay tuned!


	3. Chapter 2: Lunch with the Boys

Hey everyone! This chapter is the start of troubles for Tecna. It shows that she does have some bitterness in her, though she doesn't often show it. The rest of her bitterness is going to come out in the next chapter, which is when I'm going to introduce the new villain. For now, just enjoy a cute little moment between Tecna and Timmy. Happy reading!

**Chapter 2: Lunch with the Boys**

After five days of school and studying, all seven of the girls were dog tired. Actually, after the first day, they were all dog tired. Every night, they did their homework, and went right to bed, too tired to do anything else. Flora watered her plants every few days, and Musa made time for writing her music, but they barely had time to do the things they loved that week. They retreated to their rooms on Friday evening, ready for an early night in. Each girl threw her books onto her bed, and went right for something she loved, wanting to get her mind off work.

About 7:00, Bloom was about to suggest that they watch a movie, but she got a call on her cell phone before she could speak. She picked it up, and answered it, sincerely hoping it was a certain blonde-haired prince.

"Hello?" she asked.

"Hey Bloom, it's Sky," came the voice of her boyfriend.

She smiled as she said back, "Hey Sky, how's it going?"

"Not bad, what about you?" asked Sky.

"Not too bad," said Bloom. "The girls and I are exhausted, but we're fine."

"Not too exhausted for lunch, I hope," said Sky, a teasing edge to his voice.

"What?" asked Bloom.

"I was wondering if you and the rest of the girls might be interested in lunch with us tomorrow, say about 11:00?"

"That sounds good, let me talk to the girls a second," said Bloom. She covered the mouthpiece and said, "Sky and the rest of the boys are inviting us out to lunch tomorrow. Do you girls want to go?"

"Yeah," said a chorus of voices.

"Hey Guinevere, do you want me to set you up on a blind date?" asked Stella. Guinevere was about to say no, but she didn't get the chance. Before she could so much as open her mouth, Stella had grabbed the phone out of Bloom's hand and began speaking. "Sky, it's Stella are you still there?"

"Yeah, what do you need Stella?" asked Sky.

"Do you know a guy at Red Fountain named Bobby?" asked Stella.

"Yeah, he's in our class, why?"

"I want you to bring him to lunch with you tomorrow," replied Stella. "I'm setting Guinevere up with him."

"Does Guinevere know you're setting them up? I mean, you're not surprising her like you surprised Musa with Jared, are you?"

"Sky!" came a voice in the background. It was Riven. "You promised you wouldn't bring that up again!"

"Sorry Riven," said Sky.

"Don't worry, she knows," said Stella. "So, will you bring him?"

"Okay, we'll bring him. Now, can you please put Bloom back on?"

Stella handed the phone back to Bloom, and she said, "so it's all arranged then?"

"Yeah, we'll be by to pick you girls up at 11:00," said Sky. "See you then, love you."

"Love you, bye," said Bloom, hanging up the phone.

"You've officially got a date Guinevere," said Stella, going to sit next to her. "His name is Bobby, he's in the rest of the boy's class and he's really handsome."

"You didn't ask if I wanted a date or not," said Guinevere.

"You wouldn't have had any say it anyway Guinevere," said Musa. "She would have set you up whether you said yes or not. She set me up on a blind date last year, and I still haven't forgiven her for it." She said the last part mostly to Stella, who rolled her eyes and sighed exasperatedly.

"I just thought Jared would make a way better boyfriend than Riven, that's all."

"Well, I had my heart set on Riven, so it was done."

"So, back to the business at hand, you'll love him, I promise," said Stella, winking at Guinevere, who shook her head.

"I'll go out with him tomorrow Stella, but if he's not up to scratch, I won't go out with him again," replied Guinevere.

"How will you know whether or not he's up to scratch?" asked Layla. "You can't tell that by just one date, can you?"

"A girl knows, a girl always knows," said Guinevere, glancing at Flora. Flora caught on what she meant. If Bobby wasn't the boy they'd seen in the Room of Time, Guinevere wouldn't go out with him again. She didn't want to risk falling in love with another boy.

The next morning, the girls passed the time in their rooms doing something they loved while waiting for the boys to get there. At least most of them did. About 9:00, they heard Stella give a scream of panic, which meant that she was in the process of tearing her closet apart in the hope of finding something to wear. And from the raucous they could hear in her room, it didn't sound like it was going well.

"Aaaaarggggghhhh!" she shouted. "I can't find the perfect outfit."

"Stella, you have a thousand outfits, there's gotta be one in here that's good enough," said Bloom, starting to clean up the room.

"Nothing is good enough!" said Stella, trying hard not to use the word perfect because it reminded her too much of Downland. "This one is too formal for lunch with our boyfriends, this one is too casual, this one is the wrong color, this one's too long, this one's too short, all the beads have fallen off this one and this one has too many wrinkles!"

"Okay Stella, calm down," said Bloom. "Why don't you just use magic to make one of your outfits perfect?"

"You can't use magic to change even one aspect on clothes Bloom!" said Stella. "It's against the rules of fashion!"

"Stella, just close your eyes, reach out and pick something," suggested Bloom.

The rest of the girls had just come in and heard what they were saying.

"That sounds like a good suggestion Bloom," said Tecna. "There's a very high chance that the result will come out to your liking Stella, a 95 chance to be exact."

"Yeah, listen to them Stella," said Musa. "Just pick something. Brandon will love you in anything you wear."

"I know, but I still want to look perfect for him, where's my hairbrush?" In her moment of crisis, she had forgotten about her vendetta against the word perfect, and was too busy looking for a nice dress. She started digging through the drawers of her vanity, looking for both that and her hairbrush.

"Is she always like this?" asked Guinevere.

"Always, you'll get used to it," said Flora.

After a while, they managed to pick out a yellow sundress for Stella. The rest of the girls all wore their normal outfits. A few minutes before eleven, the girls were still putting the finishing touches on Stella's hair and makeup.

"There," said Bloom, putting a last little bit of eye liner on Stella's eyelids. "Now you look perfect Stella.

Stella opened her eyes, looked at her appearance, and said, "you're right. You girls did a great job."

"And just in time too," said Layla, looking out the window just in time to see the boy's levabikes pull into the quad. She looked over Bloom and Flora's balcony and called down to them, "we'll be down in a minute!" The girls walked outside, all of them excited about spending time with their boyfriends, Guinevere a little nervous about her blind date. She purposefully hung back a little with Flora so as to give them a chance to speak without the others hearing them.

"Flora, do you think this will be the guy?" she asked.

"I don't know, we'll see," replied Flora, as they reached the quad.

"Hey girls," said Sky, rushing right to Bloom, who jumped into his arms. He laughed and spun her around; he'd missed seeing her this last week. He kissed her and said, "how are you doing Bloom?"

"I'm wishing it was still vacation," said Bloom.

"Aren't we all?" replied Sky.

"Hey Stella, you look stunning today," said Brandon, taking her in his arms.

"Thanks," said Stella, after kissing him.

While all the girls were greeting their boyfriends, Guinevere was standing a little off to the side, feeling a little left out. There was a boy standing a little off to the side as well, whom she guessed was her blind date, but she had avoided eye contact with anyone, so she didn't know what to make of him.

"Please let him be the one," she said. "It'll take all the awkwardness out of the situation."

Stella walked over to her and pulled her forward, mumbling about she needed to be more sociable. Guinevere was about to retort that being a witch for most of her life didn't exactly make her sociable, but she didn't want to be reminded of the curse, and she didn't want her potential boyfriend to know about it yet either.

Stella smiled, shoved her towards the boy and said, "Guinevere, meet your blind date." A boy walked forward and Guinevere could tell at once that it wouldn't work out. He had short black hair and green eyes, not at all like the boy she had seen in the Pool of Infinity. She met Flora's gaze and both of them knew it was a lost cause.

"Hi, I'm Bobby," he said extending his hand.

"Guinevere," she said, giving him hers.

All the girls got on their boyfriends levabikes and took off for a nice restaurant in Magix. They ate some exquisite food, and all of them talking about how school was going so far. If you were to look at them, you could never tell they were going through times that were rapidly changing their lives. They acted as though they were a normal group of teenagers, going to schools for magic and heroics.

The only problem was they could tell Guinevere wasn't enjoying herself. She liked Bobby all right as a friend, and she was having fun with the rest of the girls, but she didn't like being in such close proximity to a boy who wasn't her boyfriend, and never would be. She considered going back to Alfea, but she didn't want to be rude, so she just decided to stick it out for a little while.

"Why can't we talk about something other than school?" asked Stella.

"What else is there to talk about Stella?" asked Tecna. "Nothing's happened to us since we got back. There's an 88 chance of not having anything else to talk about."

"I'm sick and tired of all your percents and calculations Tecna," said Stella.

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Tecna indignantly.

"You always have to calculate how high a chance something is," said Stella. "It gets really annoying after awhile. Can't you just take a little time off from that just for an hour or so?"

The words she said usually didn't mean anything to Tecna, but the way she said it made tears well up inside her eyes. She ran off, taking the road that led back to Alfea, but halfway there, she stopped and dashed inside a clump of trees. She just sat and cried her eyes out, hoping that no one would be able to find her.

"Oh way to go Stella," said Layla sarcastically. "Do you always have to do that?"

"It's just the way I am, sorry," said Stella. "Let me go talk to her."

"No, I'll talk to her," said Musa, getting up. "Be back in a few minutes."

Musa ran out of the restaurant, in the direction Tecna went. It was hard to find her, because she had no idea how far Tecna had gone, or whether or not she had made it back to Alfea. She wondered how to find her friend and roommate for a second, then snapped her fingers and gave a small smile. She released a small group of sound waves, which reverberated all over the immediate vicinity, then bounced back to her a few minutes later. They were sound waves that were supposed to pick up the slightest sound, and she had spelled these to give her signs of her friend. She was stunned when she heard the sounds of her friend crying. She ran forward, turned left, and found Tecna, sitting on the ground, trying to cover up the tears that were spreading quickly down her face.

"Hey Tecna," said Musa, sitting next to her, and placing a comforting arm around her shoulders. "You know, you really shouldn't listen to what Stella says. Her mouth gets in the way so much, it's hard to tell what she really thinks. I wouldn't be surprised if she's had another mood swing spell put on her like she did in freshmen year. That sparked a huge argument."

"I'm tired of everyone treating me as though I'm just a machine," said Tecna, not taking in a thing Musa had just said. "Just because I come from a digital realm, it doesn't mean I am a computer myself. I mean, that's what Timmy thought of me when we first met, even if he doesn't think of me like that now. Why does everyone treat me like that?"

"No one treats you like that, especially not us, and especially not Timmy," said Musa. "He's never thought of you like that, he's always had feelings for you. He was just afraid to come out and admit it."

"That may be, but everyone else treats me like a computer."

"No one treats you like a computer. You're a person, just like everyone else."

"Don't say things you know aren't true Musa," said Tecna. "People talk about me behind my back as though I'm just a know-it-all, can't get enough of impressing a teacher, computer driven fairy."

"That's only because they don't know you like we do," said Musa. "You're a great fairy, a great roommate and a really great friend. We couldn't have defeated any of the villains we did without you. Our Charmix power wouldn't have been strong enough, and we wouldn't have had your expertise to guide us along the way. You've always been there for us, it's our turn to be there for you." Even though she meant it for this particular situation, she had no idea just how much that statement was going to come true in the next two days.

"Thanks Musa," said Tecna, hugging her friend. The two of them stood up and came out of the trees, onto the sunlit path. "Let's go back to Alfea, I've rather lost my appetite."

"I kinda have too," said Musa. "I'll call Riven and tell him."

Suddenly, they heard the sound of a levabike coming toward them and a moment later, Timmy appeared in front of them. He took off his helmet and walked towards them.

"Are you okay Tecna?" he asked, placing his hands comfortingly on her shoulders.

"I'm fine," she said.

"I'll be over there if you need me," said Musa, walking across the path, with her back to them.

"I hope what Stella said didn't upset you too much," said Timmy. "I know she can be a little mean sometimes, but you shouldn't take too much notice."

"I usually don't, but this time, she just drove me over the edge," said Tecna.

"Well, I have something that might make you feel better," he said. He nervously pulled out a little box with a bow on top and handed it to Tecna. She took it curiously, seriously hoping it wasn't another heat sync, and opened it. Her eyes lit up when she saw what was inside. It was a heart shaped locket. When she opened it, she saw a little mirror on the left side and a picture of the two of them on the right.

"Timmy, it's beautiful, thank you," she said, jumping into his arms. This surprised him a little bit, but he wrapped his arms around her nonetheless, and gave a small smile. She kissed him, making him blush, and then turned around, so he could clasp the locket around her neck.

"Your welcome, do you want me to take you back to Alfea?"

"Yeah," she said. "Musa, why don't you go back to the restaurant and enjoy yourself?"

"Okay," she said. "Will you be okay there on your own?"

"I'll be fine," replied Tecna. She and Timmy went speeding back to Alfea and Musa walked back to the restaurant. The others had just finished their meal and were about to go and look for them.

"Everything ok?" asked Riven, putting his arm around Musa.

"Everything's fine," she replied. "Timmy's taken Tecna back to Alfea. She's better off then she was."

"Do you think she'll ever want to speak to me again?" asked Stella.

"I don't know Stella, you kinda blew it this time," said Musa.

"Girls, let's just go back to Alfea, and try and reconcile before anything else happens," said Bloom. The rest all agreed with her.

"Is it going to be like this all the time?" asked Guinevere.

"Welcome to the Winx Club, Guinevere," said Layla.

"Gee, what a warm welcome," said Guinevere sarcastically.

The boys dropped the girls off at Alfea and went back to Red Fountain, Bobby knowing he'd have to find another girlfriend, considering he'd probably never see Guinevere again.

The girls were silent as they walked up to their rooms. When they got there, they found Tecna lying on her bed, reading a magazine. She sat up as they came in and gave a small smile, purposefully avoiding Stella's apologetic eye.

"How are you doing Tecna?" asked Bloom, sitting next to her.

"I'm fine now," she replied, her locket swinging around her neck.

"Where did you get the locket, it's pretty," said Bloom.

"Timmy gave it to me," she said. "I love it."

"Tecna, I just want to say I'm sorry," said Stella. "I know I sometimes say things I don't mean, but you're still my friend."

"It's all right Stella," said Tecna. There was a tense moment of silence, then she asked, "So Guinevere, how did things go with Bobby?"

"He's a nice guy, but I told him I just wanted to be friends," said Guinevere. Seeing the look on Stella's face, she said, "I have my reasons Stella, that's all you need to know."

"Look, let's not get into any more fights," said Bloom. The girls all stayed and chatted in Bloom and Flora's room for the rest of the morning, except for one minute, when Guinevere went into her room to get something. As she entered, she saw a note lying on her bedside table. She picked it up and it read:

_Princess Guinevere,_

_As you are aware, your sister, Princess Elbereath, has disappeared and _

_there have not been any signs of her on Rampara. Your parents informed us _

_that you wish to be kept informed of the search for your sister. As of yet there _

_is no news of her, but we are hopeful that we shall find her soon._

_Sincerely yours,_

_The Royal Guard of Rampara_

Guinevere crumpled the note up and threw it in the wastepaper basket in the corner of the room. "How could they not know where she is?" she asked herself. She tried not to worry however, she'd promised her parents she wouldn't get involved. But she decided if they didn't turn up something soon, she'd have to take charge of the search herself.

**Author's Note:** There's the next chapter done. I hope you enjoyed it, and I will see you in a few days, when I have time to get the next chapter up. So in the next one, we'll have the villain from the prologue back again, Paritho, though Tecna's not going to find out who he is until the chapter after that, unless I decide to rearrange things. Stay tuned!


	4. Chapter 3: Attack on a Fairy

Hey everyone! This chapter really gets the trouble going, with a kidnapping and a truth revealed, to all but the one person it applies to. Happy reading!

**Chapter 3: Attack on a Fairy**

The next morning, the girls all slept in and got ready for a day of relaxation. Sunday was considered their crash day, because they were able to rest, sleep and try and enjoy themselves before finishing their homework that afternoon.

Bloom, Flora, Stella, Layla and Guinevere all wanted to stay in bed all day, and they would have if Musa hadn't come bursting into their rooms early in the morning, worry written all over her face.

"Musa, what's wrong?" asked Bloom, sitting up. "I thought you were going to work on some new music all day."

"We have bigger things to worry about," said Musa. "Is Tecna here?"

"She's your roommate," said Stella. "How come she isn't in your room?"

"She got up before I was awake and I can't find her anywhere," said Musa. "She left this note." She started reading it to the other girls.

_Girls,_

_I felt like I needed a morning jog and some fresh air. I'll be back in _

_a little while. Please don't worry._

_Tecna_

"If she's just out getting some fresh air, why are you worried?" asked Layla.

"Because I cast a small spell to find out when she wrote this letter," said Musa. "When I read it, I didn't think much of it, but when she didn't come back, I got a little worried. So I cast a spell that told me when she wrote it, and it turns out that she left at about 7:00 this morning and it's now 9:45. Don't you guys think she's been gone way too long?"

"You've got a point Musa," said Flora. "I wonder where she is."

"Do you think we should go out and find her?" asked Guinevere.

"Yeah, we should," said Bloom, getting up. "Something doesn't feel right. I just have a bad feeling that something's going to happen to Tecna and we have to be there to stop it."

"What are we waiting for then?" asked Stella. "Let's go!"

--

While the rest of the girls were talking about her, Tecna was thinking. She had been awake long before any of the other girls were, but she hadn't wanted to disturb any of them. So as quietly as she could, she got out of bed, got dressed and snuck out through the window. She transformed and flew down to the ground, then transformed back and began walking.

She sighed as she realized what was on her mind would stay there for a long time. She was thinking about the next adventure coming up, and wondering who was next in line for danger. She knew that technically she shouldn't be out alone, but if she wanted to be alone at that instant, she didn't have any other option.

But that wasn't the only thing troubling her. She was also still bitter about being the only member of the Winx Club, who wasn't a princess.

"It's not fair," she said. "All the other girls were born into royal families. They have everything they'll ever want and need. Why can't I be like that as well? I just feel so left out of everything, because I'm not royal. Why can't I have be royal?"

"But you are my dear," said a voice. She looked around but couldn't find its source. The voice made a chill run down her spine. It was cold, mirthless, as though it had been forever encased in ice. What's worse, in her position, she was a sitting duck. She was standing in the middle of an open clearing, with no way of defending herself. She knew several shield charms she could cast until she figured out what was going on, but for some reason, she was hesitant to cast them.

"Who are you?" she asked. "Where are you?"

"I'm all around you," said the voice. "I have something to tell you, which I think you should listen to. I can tell you're a smart young girl, you might find interest in what I have to say."

"What is it?" asked Tecna, lowering her guard out of pure curiosity, but ready to power up her Winx if need be.

"Come with me," said the voice. "You have great potential. You can rule all the realms with the power you have. You can become the queen of everything, with supreme command over every single action."

"What are you talking about?" she asked. "Who are you?"

"Just someone who cares about what you can do," it said again. Tecna had heard enough. She transformed and immediately cast a shield charm over herself. But the shield was weak, and could only protect her for a short amount of time.

"I don't understand," she said. "I can generate a really powerful shield, why is this one not working?"

"Because I've made it so it can't defend you," said the voice again, this time coming from directly behind her. She suddenly heard the sound of something whizzing through the air behind her, and she was able to duck out of the way, just as the attack came crashing right through her shield, breaking it as though it were nothing more than fragile glass.

"Where are you?" she repeated. She started firing several attacks, one after another in the general direction of the first attack, each one landing in a different spot of the clearing. But she only succeeded in hitting a few trees, which she was glad Flora wasn't there to see.

The voice started laughing, an evil laugh. "Is that really the best you can do?"

"Come out here and face me!" she yelled.

"Very well," said the voice. She heard something come up behind her. But before she could turn around, she felt an arm grab her around the waist and a hand in the middle of her back. He sent a surge of dark energy into her body, which made her scream and power down her Winx. Her vision began to fade in and out as the person began pull her into the sky, taking her to a completely different place. The last thing she saw was a hand appear in front of her, reaching for the locket around her neck.

"No," she whispered, as she felt him tear the precious trinket off her neck, dropping it on the ground below. She tried to fight them but they had too tight a grip on her. There was nothing she could do. She lost consciousness just as they person took her away from Magix.

--

The girls had been searching for awhile now, but had found no trace of their digital friend.

"She has to be out here somewhere," said Bloom. "We're just not looking hard enough."

"Hold on, I'll cast a nature tracking spell to find her," said Flora, raising her hands in front of her.

But the need for a tracking spell was alleviated when they heard the sound of a girl screaming not too far away from where they were. They each went pale when they realized who it was that was screaming.

"That sounded like Tecna," said Layla fearfully.

"Come on," said Musa, "we have to help her." They flew quickly to the spot where the scream had come from, hoping they weren't too late.

When Guinevere transformed, she realized that something had changed about her Winx outfit and she soon saw what it was. The ribbon that she'd had around her neck when she first transformed had disappeared and had been replaced by her necklace. She touched the diamond on it for comfort, and thought quickly, "my ancestor Isabella, please let us find Tecna safe and sound."

But when they got there, they found many scorched trees, signs of a struggle and the locket Timmy had given Tecna on the ground. The only thing that wasn't in the clearing was their friend.

"She wouldn't just take this off and leave it here," said Flora, picking up the locket. "You guys, Tecna must be the next one."

"You mean for all that danger Ms. Faragonda keeps warning us about?" asked Stella.

"Yeah, that's the only explanation," said Flora.

"We have to call the boys, tell them to get over here and then tell Ms. Faragonda," said Guinevere. "I don't know what do after that. Do you?"

"I wish I did," said Musa, as she pulled out her cell phone and dialed Riven's number. After a few minutes, Riven's voice answered, "hello?"

"Riven, can you and the rest of the boys come over here?" asked Musa.

"Is anything wrong Musa? You sound worried," asked Riven.

"Would I be asking you to come if I wasn't worried?" asked Musa. "Listen, just please get here, something's happened."

"What? What's happened?" asked Riven.

"Tecna's been kidnapped," said Musa. "Get over here and hurry."

"Okay, wait for us in the quad, we'll be there in a few minutes," he said and hung up.

Musa told the others what he'd said and the girls flew back to Alfea, arriving at the exact same time as the boys did.

"What's all this about Tecna being kidnapped?" asked Timmy, running up to the girls.

"She went for a walk this morning," said Musa. "When she didn't come back after awhile, we started to get worried."

"Then a few minutes ago, we heard her screaming," said Flora.

"But when we finally got to the place the screams came from it was too late," said Bloom. "There was no one there and this was lying on the ground." She held up the locket and handed it to him.

"The clasp is already broken," said Timmy. "Meaning it was torn off." He gripped the locket tightly in his hand, and closed his eyes, trying to block out the agony of what was happening around him. He couldn't bear it if he lost Tecna. He'd only just gotten around to finally telling her how he felt about her at the end of the previous year. He couldn't lose her after he'd worked so hard to earn her affection.

"Let's go talk to Ms. Faragonda," said Sky. "She'll know what to do."

They all walked to the headmistress' office and knocked on the door. When they went in, she could see at once that danger had struck again.

"It's Tecna, isn't it?" she said. They all nodded.

"Can you help us Ms. Faragonda?" asked Bloom. "Can you give us any kind of idea as to where she is or who kidnapped her?"

"Could it have been the witches?" asked the headmistress.

"I doubt it," said Layla. "If they had been there, we would have sensed it. Either that or they would have appeared and taunted us."

"Well, there's only one other person I can think of who might be after Tecna," said Ms. Faragonda. Seeing them all looking interested and a little nervous, she continued, "his name is Paritho and he's the prince of another realm. Well, he's not really the Prince, but he gave himself a promotion the day he overtook it. He tried to take over Tecna's realm when she was six months old. When she started here, her parents wrote me a letter saying to keep an eye out for him."

"Where could he have taken her?" asked Guinevere.

"My guess is back to her home realm. She has the potential to unlock all the power in that realm."

"But I thought the supreme power in a realm could only be controlled by the royal family," said Sky. "Tecna isn't a princess, or at least she told us she wasn't."

"That's true Sky," said Ms. Faragonda. "Only members of the royal family can handle any type of power like that. But, Musa you're Tecna's roommate. What is the one thing that Tecna is bitter about more than anything else?"

"Uh, I think it's the fact that the rest of are princesses and she isn't," said Musa. "It makes her feel a little left out. Why?"

"Because that's how she's been brought up to think," said Ms. Faragonda.

"What, to be bitter about not being a princess?" asked Brandon.

"No, to think she isn't a princess," said Ms. Faragonda.

"You mean she is?" asked Bloom. "And she's never known about it?"

"Her parents cast all sorts of spells to make sure she never found out," said Ms. Faragonda. "There's a long story behind it, but apparently, her parents thought she'd be safer if she grew up away from the palace and didn't know about her heritage. But that's only made her more vulnerable and easier for him to manipulate. And unfortunately, he knows just how susceptible she is, and plans to use her to get the powers of her realm. She won't be able to do anything against him."

"Then let's get her back," said Timmy.

"Good luck and be careful," said the headmistress as they all ran out of the office. They headed for a Red Fountain ship and set the coordinates for Tecna's home planet of Zenith.

"Hang on Tecna, we're coming," said Timmy silently.

**Author's Note:** There's the next chapter done. I hope you enjoyed it, and I will see you in a few days, when I have time to get the next chapter up. So in the next one, we'll have Paritho formally introduce himself to Tecna, and wait until you see her reaction to the news. She isn't going to know what hit her. Stay tuned!


	5. Chapter 4: A Shock for Tecna

Hey everyone! In this chapter, Tecna finds out that she is the princess of the realm, Paritho reveals the entirety of his plans to her, and the rest of the group try to go and rescue her. Also, the witches reappear and try and stop the rescue mission. Face it, we're never going to see the last of them. Happy reading!

**Chapter 4: A Shock for Tecna**

Tecna woke up about a half an hour after she had been kidnapped. She was lying on a canopy bed in a large room. She had never seen the room before in her life. What then struck her was that her hands were tied behind her back and she was wearing a long purple dress. It was the same color purple as her normal outfit, floor length and had thin straps across her shoulders. She wondered how she had gotten into it, because she was wearing her normal clothes when she was kidnapped. She also realized that her locket was missing.

"Where am I? Why am I dressed like this? Where's my locket?" she asked.

"My, aren't we filled with questions," came a voice from across the room. There was a man across the room from her. He had short, light brown hair, steel gray eyes and a cold, ruthless smile.

"Who are you?" asked Tecna, sitting up.

He walked over to her and said, "my name is Paritho and I'm the prince who's going to take over all the realms, with you at my side."

"Me?" she asked. "You must be joking."

"Oh but I'm not," he said. "You're part of my plan, because you're the only one who can release this realm's power."

"Power? What are you talking about?" asked Tecna.

"Your headmistress at Alfea has alerted you of the full power each realm has, has she not?"

"Yes she has, but only royalty can control it," said Tecna. "I'd have thought you knew that."

Paritho's grin widened. "Your parents never told you, did they?"

"Told me what?" she asked.

"Look out this window," he told her. He drew back the curtains and she was shocked to see her home realm stretching out for miles.

"Judging by the land and by the direction the window faces," she said, "unless I'm very much mistaken, we're inside the palace."

"You're right," he said. "I'm surprised you're not happy to be home, _Princess_."

"Princess?" she asked.

"Yes, you're the heir to the throne of this realm."

"That's impossible. This realm doesn't have a princess and even if it did, it can't be me. I grew up in a house on the other side of the realm. My parents always told me I was a normal girl. If they were King and Queen, I would definitely have known about it."

"Not if they made sure you didn't. But down to business, come on!" He forced her to stand up and started to lead her out the door, through the hallways in the palace.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"To a secret room," he said, shoving her forward.

"There are so many questions burning in my mind, will you please tell me why you need me to do whatever it is you need me to do?" she asked, although she was afraid to learn the answers.

"Because only members of the royal family can control this power, you were right about that," he said. "You're going to release it for me."

"But if only members of the royal family can control it," said Tecna. "How do you plan on using it? Are you going to make me cast a spell so that you'll be able to use it to your liking?"

"Yes, but I also had something else in mind," said Paritho. "A wedding perhaps."

"What?" asked Tecna. "I don't want to marry you. I can't. I won't.

"Oh but you will," he said. "If I have anything to say about it, you will."

"There's nothing you can do to make me change my mind," said Tecna. "The answer is no. You can't force me to marry you, I won't help you and you can't make me do something I don't want to."

"I beg to differ," he said. "I know one or two things I can do that would make you more than willingly do what I want."

Tecna had heard enough. She wanted nothing more than to use her magic to blast this man as far away from her as she could. But when she tried to transform, she couldn't do it. Paritho laughed and said, "there's nothing you can do. I put a spell on you in case you tried to fight me. You can't transform."

"But I bet I can still cast spells," she said to herself.

Luckily, she was wearing heeled shoes and stepped on his foot. While he was distracted, she opened her palms towards him and said, "forcus baccus." Paritho flew to the other side of the hallway and hit the wall. Then with another spell, parts of the wall then rose forward and bound him in place. Tecna cast another quick spell that untied her hands and she ran for it.

"I have to find a place to hide," she thought. She ran as fast as she could, but she kept tripping over her dress. She quickly cast another spell that changed her back in her regular clothes, and kept running. She ran through the hallways, until she couldn't run anymore. She came to a door and hurried inside it. She found herself in the trophy room. Everywhere she looked there were display cases, filled with hundreds upon hundreds of every kind of trophy imaginable.

"Where are you Tecna?" She gasped as she heard Paritho's voice coming her way. He must have broken out of the restraints. She dashed behind a display case, leaning against the wall, as he entered the room. "You're in here somewhere, I can sense it."

She didn't even dare to breathe for fear that he might hear it and find her. She was leaning against the wall so tightly that she had to cover her mouth to stifle her scream when it fell back. There was a secret passage that led out of the trophy room. She silently crept through it, closed the door behind her and walked through it.

"Where does this come out?" she asked. She followed it for another few minutes and found herself outside the palace. She started to walk quickly towards her house but she heard something coming from the palace behind her. Paritho had blasted a wall looking for her. She tried to transform again but couldn't do it.

"Do you really think you can get away?" he asked. Tecna tried to run but before she knew it, her hands were tied behind her back again and Paritho was dragging her back to the palace.

"Please guys," she thought. "Find me quickly."

--

"Come on, come on," said Timmy, as he maneuvered the ship. He was so nervous, that his fingers were hitting the controls especially hard. He could hear them beeping, as though they were shrieking out in protest, but he didn't care. "I know this thing can go faster. I just updated the computers."

"Timmy, this is the fastest it can go," said Sky. "Why don't you let me take over?"

"No way," he said. "We have to get to Tecna as quickly as possible."

"You're too distracted," said Sky. "And besides, we can't go dashing all over the place once we get there. Why don't I drive the ship and you can help the girls come up with a plan to rescue her."

"But Sky," he said, beginning to protest, but Sky, being much stronger than his technological friend, had already shoved him out of his seat and towards the girls. He sighed and walked over to the rest of the group, knowing that Sky was right. He was letting his emotions get the best of him and that wouldn't help if he was going to rescue Tecna.

"How do we find her once we get there?" asked Flora.

"Can you girls cast some kind of spell that will find her?" asked Helia. He had his arm around Flora for comfort, which she needed.

"I doubt any spells will be able to get through but we can try," said Bloom.

"There might be a way we can use our Winx to get in touch with her without anyone knowing," said Guinevere. "Perhaps she can tell us where she is and how we can get to her."

"I don't think that'll work," said Layla. "Paritho's probably made sure we won't be able to get in touch with her or her with us."

"Hate to interrupt the planning session, but we're here," said Riven. "Where should we land?"

"In front of the palace," said Musa. "If she's the princess, that's probably where this Paritho guy took her."

"Okay," said Riven. They landed the ship and headed for the palace. There were no guards on duty. It seemed the entire place was deserted. Brandon and Riven pushed open the huge doors into the entry hall and they all walked inside. It was enormous, even as big as Flora's palace on Lynphea.

"Where do we start looking?" asked Brandon.

His question was answered about a second later, because they heard Tecna screaming, "let go! Let go of me! I don't want to help you!"

"This way, hurry!" said Timmy. They ran through the corridors and saw Tecna being led into a secret passageway. They saw her hands tied behind her back and Paritho pushing her into the passage

"Where are you taking me?" she asked, trying to fight him off.

"You'll see in a minute," he said. "Just walk!"

Timmy was shaking with rage, hating Paritho for what he was doing to Tecna. Before anyone else could stop him, he dashed out of hiding and ran at Paritho. "Get away from her!" he yelled. He started to pull out his weapon but Paritho fired a huge ball of energy at him, making him fall to the ground, unable to get back up.

"No!" yelled Tecna. The rest of the girls and the boys started towards them.

"Dragon Blast!"

"Sun Blast!"

"Venus Vine Wrap!"

The three attacks weren't enough to defeat Paritho, but were enough to subdue him for a few seconds. The boys surrounded him and began helping the girls to fight him. Musa flew forward and untied Tecna's hands, asking if she was all right. Tecna, however, was too worried about Timmy to so much as answer Musa's questions. Once she was free, she ran to his side.

"Timmy? Are you all right?" she asked, gathering him in her arms.

Timmy looked up at her, and gave a weak smile to see her all right. She smiled back at him, and the two hugged each other tightly.

"I've been so worried about you Tecna," he told her.

"Enough!" yelled Paritho. The boys tried to hold him down, but they couldn't do anything, he was too powerful. "If you want to save your little friend, you'll have to do better than that. She is coming with me and there's nothing you can do to stop me!"

"She's not going with you!" yelled Musa. "Sound Blast!"

"Tidal Wave!" yelled Layla.

Paritho absorbed both their attacks as though they were nothing more than a small gust of wind. Then he sent a couple of his own attacks back at the two girls. They dodged them, but just barely.

"We have to get out of here!" yelled Bloom. "He's too powerful!"

"Don't forget about us!" said a voice which made the girls all groan. The witches had arrived. Icy, Darcy and Stormy appeared out of nowhere, and what's worse, they appeared directly behind Bloom. Before she could react, she felt something cold hit her in the back. It spread all over her entire body, imprisoning her in one of Icy's infamous ice coffins.

"Bloom!" yelled Sky. Stella ran to her best friend's side and within a few seconds had melted the ice. Bloom opened her eyes, fury coursing through them. She started firing her strongest attacks at Icy, completely forgetting that Paritho was behind her.

"Mesmerizer!" yelled Darcy, aiming for Musa. She missed but just barely.

"Psycho Cyclone!" yelled Stormy. She almost swept the girls and the boys into the tornado, were it not for the fact that Guinevere had learned a nifty little spell that kept it from hitting them.

"You shouldn't have tried recruiting me into your plan Icy," she said. "I know all your tricks and I know ways around them."

"I told you she was a waste of time," said Stormy.

"It was your idea Icy," said Darcy, just as grumpy as Stormy was.

"We'll argue about this later, for now, let's just take care of these losers," said Icy.

Tecna felt so helpless sitting there while her friends were fighting the witches. She tried to transform again but she still couldn't do it. The spell Paritho had put on her was too strong.

"I can't just sit here," she said glumly to Timmy.

"It'll be fine," he said, putting his hand on her shoulder. But the next instant, he saw something that shocked him to the core, and there was nothing he could do to prevent it from happening.

"Dragon Blast!" yelled Bloom.

"Diamond Storm!" yelled Guinevere.

The girls and the heroes fought valiantly against the witches, and for awhile it looked like they had won. But the three witches started laughing again and Icy said, "you pixies are so easily distracted."

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Layla.

"You were so busy fighting us, you didn't notice Paritho getting away with your little friend," said Darcy. They turned around and saw Timmy unconscious and Tecna was nowhere to be seen. The witches just laughed and kept firing, amazed that the girls had dared turn their backs on them.

--

While the rest of the girls had been fighting the witches, Paritho had fired a spell at Timmy, which knocked him out. He then cast a spell on Tecna that kept her from screaming. He grabbed her arms and forced her down the secret passageway. She struggled with all her might but he was too strong.

"Please, let me go," she said. She wanted to fight him, but she was exhausted from the day's events and didn't have the strength left to try and get away from him.

"Do you really think I'm just going to let you go?" he asked her. "I can't release you just like that. You have to release the power of this realm for me and after that you're coming back to my realm. There we'll be married and together we'll rule all the realms. No one will be able to stand in our way. You'll be able to decide everything that happens in every single realm, with control over everyone's actions. Doesn't that sound good?"

"No, it sounds horrendous," replied Tecna. "Besides, I'm not going to do a single thing you tell me to. I'm not going to your realm and I'm certainly not going to become your wife."

"You will," he said. "Once you have the power in your hands, all I have to do is cast a simple spell over you and you'll do my every command. You will never be able to think for yourself or do anything of your own free will. Get used to it Tecna, for that's the way things are going to be for the rest of your life."

"You…you can't do that," stuttered Tecna.

"I can and I will," said Paritho. Tecna fell to her knees and cried. Paritho gave an exasperated and angry grunt and forced her to her feet. "Enjoy your last few moments as yourself Tecna, for they'll be the last you'll ever have."

--

Meanwhile, the rest of the girls and the heroes were still battling the witches. Helia and Jason were the only ones not fighting. They were trying to wake Timmy up and in a few seconds, they had done it.

"Where's Tecna?" he asked. Comprehension dawned on his face when he realized that Paritho had walked off with her.

"We don't have any time to waste!" yelled Layla. "We have to get downstairs before Paritho makes Tecna release this realm's power!"

"Come on girls, we're going to have to use convergence!" yelled Bloom. The six girls powered up their Charmix and soon they had created a spell to make the witches back off. The three witches were sent flying out of the room, but they knew they'd be back.

"Come on!" yelled Musa. "They went this way, hurry!" She and Timmy led the way down the tunnel. After a little while, they could hear the sounds of Tecna struggling to free herself from Paritho's grip and they could hear some of the words he was saying to her. But it was a long tunnel and it kept twisting and turning, so they couldn't see them for ages. When they heard the part about Paritho taking Tecna to his realm to marry her, Timmy nearly passed out from shock. They were all stunned when they heard the part about the spell, so she could never have a free will again.

"We'd better hurry up!" said Guinevere as they kept following the tunnel. She said to herself, "I just hope we're not too late.

--

Tecna and Paritho had reached a magically locked door at the end of the tunnel. She was glad when he finally stopped, and even more so when he released her. She sank to the ground and closed her eyes, just wanting to go to sleep. She forced herself to keep her eyes open and watched him as he examined the door. He tried to use a spell to unlock it, but it wouldn't budge.

"I should have known," he said. "Only members of the royal family can open this door. Do it Tecna."

"I don't want to," she said.

She shrieked as she felt Paritho's hand grab her arm, and pull her to her feet, creating a great pain that stretched throughout most of her upper arm and shoulder. "Do it or else!" he said.

Afraid to ask what "or else" meant, Tecna raised her hand and cast a small spell on the door. It opened to reveal a small, circular room, complete with absolutely nothing in it. But suddenly, she felt the warmth flow through her, meaning she could sense the power in every square inch of the room. It was the most amazing feeling she'd ever had, which under different circumstances would have comforted her, but now filled her with a sense of dread.

"Where is this power?" she asked, pretending she didn't notice what she was sensing. "I don't see anything or anyplace to hide it."

"It's everywhere," said Paritho. "And I know you can sense it, so there's no point in lying to me. Now release it and absorb it."

"No," she said.

"Do it!" yelled Paritho.

"No!"

Considering she couldn't transform and she didn't have any strength left, it was amazing how brave she sounded. But Paritho was very angry with her for saying that. He knew that she was very weak from all that had happened and that she wouldn't be able to fight him. He grabbed her arm, twisted it painfully behind her back, and pushed her against the wall. She moaned in pain as he let go of her arm.

"You shouldn't have said that," he said, watching her slide to the floor, her legs unable to support her anymore. She looked fearfully up at him, unable to speak. She gazed imploringly at him, as though asking him to change his mind, but she knew he wouldn't. He continued, "Maybe I should just go ahead and cast the spell on you now. That way you'll get the power for me without hesitation."

"No, please," Tecna pleaded with him. It was too late. He'd already begun the spell.

**Author's Note:** There's the next chapter done. What did you think? Did I capture Tecna's reaction to the news all right? And I know it wasn't the best action sequence I've ever done, as a matter of fact, I'm not very good at those, but I'm learning. In the next chapter, Tecna will hear the full story from her parents and Paritho is going to try and take her again.


	6. Chapter 5: Under his Control

Hey everyone! In this chapter, Tecna escapes from Paritho temporarily, but he's going to get her back, and the girls travel to his home realm to get her back. That's the chapter in a nutshell. Happy reading!

**Chapter 5: Under his Control**

Tecna tried hard to fight off the tears that were forming in her eyes as she watched Paritho. She was determined not to let him see her cry, but she couldn't help herself. She was about to lose her freedom, her friends, her boyfriend, everything that was good in her life.

"Goodbye Timmy," she whispered.

Paritho pointed his finger at her, paralyzing her, which really wasn't necessary since she couldn't move anyway, and started to say the spell. "Arresto matecora saldana."

A dark glow started to form around Tecna and a fierce battle started to take place inside her head. One minute she was her normal self and the next she was becoming Paritho's slave. She tried to fight the spell but it was taking hold of her very quickly.

"It's over," she thought. "There's nothing anyone can do now."

But she was wrong, very wrong. Just as Paritho was about to say the last word, someone yelled, "Sound Blast!" Waves of sonic energy hit Paritho in the back and he was forced to break his concentration. The glow around Tecna faded and she was back to being herself. She breathed a deep sigh of relief as she felt his control over her evaporate.

"Musa!" yelled Tecna, trying to stand up but failing. The music fairy flew through the door, throwing her strongest attacks at Paritho. A minute later, the rest of the Winx Club and the heroes came in. Timmy ran to Tecna's side, putting his arms around her. She wrapped her arms around him just as tightly and buried her face in his shoulder, which he wasn't prepared for, but still comforted her as best he could.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

"I'm fine," she said, but she was trembling, and he knew she was fighting the urge to start crying again, and he couldn't really say he blamed her.

But Paritho wasn't done with them yet. He let out a large burst of energy, knocking all of them back. He knew he had a better chance of kidnapping Tecna when she was alone, and decided to take the opportunity to replenish his strength.

"This isn't over. I'll be back for you Princess," he said, pointing at Tecna. "And next time, you won't get away that easily."

Musa flew at him, ready to attack but he disappeared before she had even got close.

"We have to find him!" she yelled. "We can't let him capture Tecna again."

"Musa, calm down," said Riven. "There's nothing we can do."

"How are you doing Tecna?" asked Bloom.

"You guys got here just in the nick of time," said Tecna. "Five seconds later and I would be under Paritho's control. But I think I'm okay now. Let's get out of here and get back to my house."

"Good idea, you need to rest," said Flora.

"That too, but the main reason is I want to know why my parents never told me I was a princess."

Flora got a nervous look on her face and so did the rest of the group. They were hoping they wouldn't have to discuss Paritho or what had happened anymore that night. Tecna said a quick spell, and in an instant, they were transported to the living room in her house. Her parents were a little shocked to see her and her friends appear, but they soon got over it. They knew at once what had happened.

"I suppose this means Paritho attacked you?" asked her father.

"He did," said Tecna. "But right this moment, I'm not concerned about Paritho or what he almost did to me. What I want to know is how in 16 years, the two of you never found a spare minute to tell me that you both were royalty or for that matter that I was the princess."

"We thought we were doing the right thing," replied her mother.

Tecna gave a small "hmph," and said, "the right thing for who mother?"

"For all of us," said her mom. "Paritho's been after you for a long time Tecna. We thought…no, your father thought that it would be safer if you grew up away from the palace."

"Safer?

"Yes," said her dad. He explained what had happened between them and Paritho all those years ago. "We thought…"

"Ahem," said her mom.

"All right, your mom wanted to raise you in the palace and explain everything years ago. It was my idea to bring you here. You were only a child, I was sure if we told you the truth at so young an age, you'd spend your entire life looking over your shoulder for Paritho."

"That's ridiculous," said Tecna. "I'm not a girl who gets scared very easily. When were you going to tell me everything?"

"On your 19th birthday," said her mom. "Please try to understand Tecna, we were trying to protect you."

"You know, I don't feel protected, betrayed is more like it," said Tecna, really starting to lose her temper.

"Tecna, chillax," said Musa, putting her arm around her friend. But Tecna pushed her away and ran out of the room. They heard her storm up the stairs and slam the door into her bedroom.

"I told you we should have told her everything years ago," said Tecna's mom.

"Why don't I go talk to her?" said Flora.

"No, I'll talk to her," said Bloom. "She needs comfort from someone who knows what it's like to find out you're royalty from the bad guys." Bloom dashed up the stairs and knocked on Tecna's door. She could hear something inside, it sounded like Tecna was crying. "Tecna, can I come in?" she asked.

"Come in Bloom," said Tecna.

Bloom entered and saw her friend lying face down on her bed, sobbing into her pillow. "Oh Tecna," said Bloom, sitting next to her. Tecna rolled over onto her side so she could talk to Bloom. Her face was still pressed against her pillow and tears were coursing down her face. Bloom had never seen her like that, Tecna had always kept her emotions bottled up inside.

"I don't understand," said Tecna, in between sobs. "How could my father underestimate me like that?"

"He loves you Tecna, he only wants what's best for you. Both your parents do."

"They should have at least told me before today. It makes me think that they don't trust me. If they really want what's best for me, they would have told me all the facts years ago. They say it was to protect me, but nothing they did to help me has worked. I just would have liked to have found out from them rather than from Paritho."

"You had it easy Tecna. Try finding out you're a princess from Icy, Darcy and Stormy. I still haven't forgiven them for stealing my powers in Gardenia and I don't think I ever will."

"But you didn't have someone who knew the truth about your powers," said Tecna. "Your Earth parents didn't even know you were a fairy until you started at Alfea. My parents have known about this all my life and they never told me about it. It feels like they've betrayed me. This is all just too much too soon and I can't take it. Please Bloom, go away."

Bloom sighed and walked out the door, turning back around to say, "try to get some rest," before walking out.

That night, everyone took turns watching Tecna's door to make sure Paritho didn't come after her again. They doubted they'd be able to do much good doing just that, but she'd put a spell on the room so they couldn't come in. All she wanted was to be left alone, and didn't want anyone trying to offer sympathy. When Timmy tried to come in, she shouted at him through the door to go away. He walked away in sadness, clutching her locket in his fist. All he wanted was the chance to give it back to her, but she wouldn't let him anywhere near her.

Tecna fell into a very fitful sleep about an hour after she went upstairs. All her dreams were filled with visions of Paritho, and what he could possibly do to her, and more than likely planned to do to her. She kept tossing and turning in her sleep, trying but failing to get these visions out of her head.

But someone other than the boys was watching over Tecna that night. As soon as he saw she was asleep, Paritho appeared in Tecna's room and walked silently over to her bed. He reached down and placed his hand on her shoulder, magic flowing from his hand to her, a spell ensuring that she wouldn't wake up until after they had gotten back to the palace. He picked her up in his arms and they disappeared into the night.

--

When Musa woke up the next morning, she could tell at once something was wrong, but at first, she couldn't tell what it was. She looked around her room but didn't see anything wrong. She quickly dressed and walked out in the hallway but didn't see anything there either.

"Musa, is that you?" It was Riven.

"Good morning Riven," said Musa.

"Are you ok?" he asked, putting his arm around her.

"I don't know. Something doesn't feel right, and I can't put my finger on what it is."

"Good, then I'm not the only one," said Guinevere, coming out of her room, making Riven withdraw his arm quickly.

"What do you think's wrong?" he asked.

"I don't know," said Guinevere. "It's just a feeling. Maybe it's just a remnant of the curse or something."

"No," came another voice. It was Flora. "If it was a remnant of that curse, you'd be the only one with a bad feeling inside. I sense it too." The rest of the girls and the heroes joined them in the hallway. All the girls had a bad feeling, but only one of the heroes felt it: Timmy. That told them what it was.

"Tecna!" he yelled. He ran to her room, but found it empty. He was shaking so much to find her gone, that it was a wonder he managed to stay on his feet. "Paritho must have snuck in during the night and got her!"

"We have to get back to the palace," said Musa. "That's the only place he could have taken her." The girls all transformed and flew back to the palace, the boys following closely, all hoping they weren't too late.

--

By this time, Paritho and Tecna had reached the secret room under the palace. She was still under the spell he had put on her. He set her down on the floor and looked at her sleeping peacefully.

"With you asleep, I can cast the spell without any interruptions." He waved his arms again and started to say the spell. "Arresto matecora saldana. Captura thinka ancasta alpordana!" A dark glow formed around Tecna and within a moment, she had woken up. Her eyes had turned a deep red color and there was no friendly smile on her face. She had turned into Paritho's puppet, with no control over her actions. He laughed and said, "now that you are under my control, absorb the power of this realm."

"Yes my lord," she said, in a haunting voice, quite unlike her own. She rose a few feet in the air, concentrating her energies. Within a few minutes, the power started to flow towards her and she took it all in. It only took her a few minutes to absorb all of it. Paritho started to laugh again as he and Tecna rose out of the room and appeared above ground in front of the palace.

"Tecna!" yelled Musa. She and the rest of the fairies were flying quickly towards the palace, the boy's right behind them. When they got there, the girls all gasped and Timmy nearly collapsed when he saw Tecna. They could all tell she had retrieved the realm's power and she was under Paritho's control.

"What have you done to her?" asked Layla.

"It's just a spell," said Paritho. "One that will keep your little friend here under my control for all eternity. Nothing you can do will ever get her back on your side."

Bloom and Musa flew towards the two of them. Bloom was ready to take Paritho down, knowing that she could keep him distracted while Musa got Tecna out of there. But Paritho knocked them back with another spell, making both girls land in their boyfriend's arms. A moment later, Paritho and Tecna disappeared and none of them knew where to look for them.

"No!" yelled Musa. She was so frustrated with herself, she threw a couple attacks at some large rocks, just to vent out her anger. She calmed down when she felt Riven's arms wrap around her. She started crying into his shoulder, making him really uncomfortable but he still comforted her as best as he could. Timmy was even angrier than she was. He couldn't believe he'd let a villain kidnap his girlfriend.

"We have to figure out where he's taken her," said Timmy.

"Timmy, calm down," said Flora. "We have to come up with a plan to rescue Tecna."

"Don't you think I know that?" he snapped at her. Flora was a little taken aback. None of them had ever seen him like that. Helia put an arm around Flora as he saw tears starting to well up inside her eyes.

"There are so many realms, where do we start looking?" asked Guinevere.

"Maybe Tecna's parents will have some ideas," said Layla.

Since no one else had any other suggestions, they went to Tecna's house and asked her parents where to look.

"You could try Paritho's home realm," said her mom. "It's the Realm of Angelicas."

"Angelicas? It doesn't sound that bad," said Guinevere.

"That's what you think. The place is pretty much an ongoing nightmare, the palace is riddled with traps and every time someone uses magic, Paritho knows about it. If you girls use your Winx at any time in the realm, no matter where you are, Paritho will know you're there. You have to be extremely careful. But you also have to hurry. If Paritho is planning to marry Tecna, there won't be anything you can do.

"What do you mean?" asked Musa.

"Once they're married, she'll be under his spell for the rest of her life," said her mom. "You have to stop him before it's too late. Please, find my daughter."

"You know we will," said Bloom.

They ran back to the ship and set the coordinates for the Realm of Angelicas. Sky, Brandon and Jason flew the ship, while Timmy, Riven and Helia helped the girls come up with plans to rescue Tecna.

"The worst part is we won't be able to use a tracking spell to find Tecna," said Bloom. "If Paritho can find out we're there by the simplest spells, it leaves us with a huge disadvantage."

"Flora, do you think you'll still be able to hear the Voice of Nature when we get to Angelicas?" asked Musa. "You and Bloom may be able to find her with that."

"I don't know," said Flora. "Sometimes in an evil realm, my powers are less effective. You girls don't have the burden of having your power weaken in such an environment."

"Oh, like the Under Realm didn't drain our Winx?" asked Stella.

"I'm not talking about just the Under Realm Stella; I'm talking about any realm that's been taken over by evil. When we were in Rampara before getting rid of all that darkness, I could feel my powers draining gradually."

"Why didn't you say something at the time Flora?" asked Helia.

"We had so many other things to worry about, I didn't want to add the extra burden on top of everything else."

"Don't be ridiculous Flora, we had a right to know," said Layla. "Right Guinevere?"

"Right, you should have said something," said Guinevere.

"Hate to interrupt, but you might want to look outside," said Sky.

They looked out the windows and almost at once the girls had shocked looks on their faces. The realm of Angelicas, which had sounded so angelic, was a very dark and gloomy realm. Every few seconds, a bolt of lightning would come crashing to the ground and thunder was constantly rumbling. The buildings were small and decrepit, and hardly any people were in the streets. When they did see someone in the streets, that person would just run as fast as they could and dash inside another building. The palace was the worst of all. It was the shadow of evil itself, darkness radiating from it, turrets and towers casting dark light into every single corner of the realm. The girls all felt chills run down their spins just looking at the place.

"Okay, definitely not as idyllic as the name leads you to believe," said Bloom.

"Got that right," said Musa. "Is there a spot to land over by the palace?"

"We probably shouldn't land by the palace," said Sky. "If the guards see us, we're done for. Let's land over here where there's some room for cover." They landed in a grove of trees, where they could hide the ship and no one would find it. They walked out and looked over the realm.

"Do you think someone here will be able to help us?" asked Flora.

"I doubt it," said Riven. "The people here will either be too loyal to Paritho or too scared of him to help us."

They walked through the streets toward the palace. Everywhere they looked, they could see people watching them out of their windows, but the windows snapped shut every few seconds.

"Looks like we're on our own," said Layla.

"Remember no magic," said Bloom. "If we get caught, then all truly is lost."

**Author's Note:** Another chapter down, and I'm not going to tell you how many to go. So, what did you think? And what do you think is going to happen in the next chapter? I will go ahead and tell you that Paritho is going to begin the wedding, but I won't tell you whether or not the others get there in time. To find that out, you'll just have to keep reading. Stay tuned!


	7. Chapter 6: Arrangements for a Wedding

Hey everyone! In this chapter, the wedding between Tecna and Paritho begins. The others try to get to her, but let's just say that some of them get to the palace by a different method than the rest. You'll understand what I mean after you've read the chapter. Happy reading!

**Chapter 6: Arrangements for a Wedding**

While the others were flying to Angelicas, Paritho was showing Tecna the palace. He led her through the entire place, reveling at the look of evil glee on her face. This was certainly a look he had never seen on her before and he couldn't deny that he found it attractive. He was certain she'd make an excellent queen who'd be able to help him rule with an iron fist.

"Welcome to your new home my dear," said Paritho, leading Tecna by the hand through the castle. "Here is the throne room, where we will sit together and rule the people every day, and through there are rooms where you will do everything I tell you too."

"Looking forward to it," said Tecna. "This looks like a very comfortable place."

"Good," said Paritho. "But first, we have to be married. You, servant!" He gestured at a girl standing against the wall. She was about seventeen, with deep brown hair tied up in a bun. She looked as if she wanted to be anywhere else but there, but was too scared of Paritho to do anything about it. Yet Tecna could sense a deep resentment within this girl. She wanted to fight back against this man standing before her, but either didn't have the powers or the courage. She was willing to bet that this girl wasn't lacking in courage at all.

"Yes sire?" she asked, giving him a curtsy.

"Take my fiancée up to her room," said Paritho. "Now Tecna, once you're there, put on the dress I've left on your bed, freshen up, and be back down here in no more than fifteen minutes."

Tecna nodded and followed the servant up the stairs, through two long hallways before stopping at a doorway. The girl opened it then stood aside to admit her. It was a large spacious room, with a bed against the far wall, a vanity and dresser, one door to the closet, the other to the bathroom. But it was completely devoid of any kind of personal effects, plants, photos, mementos. It was a very gloomy room, and Tecna couldn't help but give a shudder as she entered it.

They servant girl then asked politely, "do you have everything you need Miss?"

"I think so," said Tecna. "Thank you...."

"Nirvana, my name is Nirvana."

"Thank you Nirvana," said Tecna as she picked up the dress on her bed.

Nirvana left the room and walked back to the kitchens, thinking bitterly to herself, "I'm the one who should be ruling this realm not Paritho. I was Princess Nirvana before he came along, but now I'm just a servant. And he has my powers, and he's using them for his own personal gains. And now he's got a poor, innocent girl under his control. I can tell she's trying to fight that spell, but to no avail. There has to be some way to help her, get my throne back, and restore the realm to its original glory."

She thought all those things until she got back to the kitchens, where the cook gave her more work to do. This just made her even bitterer about being dethroned. When she was given an errand to run, she deliberately skipped it and decided to go and watch the wedding. She wanted to see if there was anything she could do to help stop it. She doubted she'd be able to do much, and if she was caught, she knew exactly what Paritho would do to her. One thing was for sure, she wouldn't be of any help to Tecna or to her people if Paritho destroyed her before she could do anything.

---------

Back up in her room, Tecna had already put on her wedding dress. It was a knee- length, sleeveless, black silk gown, with matching elbow-length gloves and heels. She was sitting at her vanity, applying a little bit of makeup, which made her skin appear very pale, making her red eyes stand out vividly.

As she looked at herself in the mirror, she couldn't help but wonder if this really was the right thing to do. Part of her knew she was under a spell and was trying to break it, but that part of her was weak and didn't know anything about power.

"I will be the queen of all realms," she thought to herself as she spun in front of the mirror to see how she looked. "But what about my friends and Timmy? What will happen to them? I don't want them to get hurt."

She felt a pounding in her head as she realized that they probably would be hurt or worse. She placed a hand on her forehead and tried to ignore the annoying pain, which she realized was herself trying to break free of this spell. But after a minute, she shook her head and said, "Paritho knows best and that's all I need to know." She walked out of the room and back towards the stairs. It was time to start the wedding.

------------

"I want this to be done as quickly as possible," said Paritho. There was a priest standing next to him in the entry way of the palace, where the wedding was to be held. "Can you get that through your head? None of that ceremonial jargon, just the "I do's," the rings and the kiss. Got it?"

"But sire," he said. "We need all the ceremonial bits, it isn't a proper wedding without them."

"All right, we can start with them, but if something happens that might interfere with this wedding, we will skip ahead to whatever part that matters," said Paritho grumpily.

"So you're going to marry the brainy pixie?" asked Icy, appearing out of nowhere.

"It's about time she found out how much fun is to be evil," said Stormy.

Darcy appeared and said, "yeah, I'm ready for her smarts to be on our side."

"I can't wait to see the look on her loser boyfriend's face when he finds out," said Icy.

"We'll let him wallow in misery, then we'll have mercy on him," said Stormy.

"Just as long as he can't rescue her," said Darcy.

"I want you three ready to strike in case something happens to disrupt this wedding," said Paritho. "Do whatever you have to do. I don't want an audience. Is that clear?" The three witches nodded.

"Is anything wrong my lord?" asked Tecna, as she walked down the stairs. She had to admit she wasn't comfortable with the witches being there, but if Paritho wanted them there, then she'd have to deal with it.

"No my dear," said Paritho, extending his hand, "are you ready to proceed?"

"Of course," she said, taking his hand.

"Very well," said Paritho. "Friar, if you please, let's begin."

--------

The Winx Club and the heroes continued down the streets, getting closer and closer to the palace. With every step they took it got colder, and it took every ounce of self control the girls had not to cast a spell to keep them warm. One or two of the boys had taken their capes off and wrapped them around their girlfriends, but it didn't do very much good. Having been in the cold for awhile, the cloaks were as cold as they were. The girls ended up giving them back; they were just making things worse.

"How will we get in once we get there?" asked Guinevere.

"We'll find a way," said Layla.

"Let's just hurry up and get there before it's too late," said Timmy.

"Let's hope it already isn't too late," said Jason. They all glared at him and he said, "what?"

"You could at least pretend to have a better attitude," said Bloom. "You're worse than Riven."

"Hey!" said Riven indignantly.

"I'm sorry I'm like that," said Jason, cutting Riven off before he could come up with some smart-aleck comment to counter Bloom's. "It's just I get this feeling that if even if we get in the palace, there won't be anything we can do."

"I am not going to listen to this," said Stella, walking a little further ahead.

"Me neither, wait for me Stella," said Flora, running to catch up with her. Brandon and Helia stayed a few steps behind them to make sure they stayed safe.

Layla walked next to Jason and said, "I know I'm not exactly the most optimistic person in the group, but even I don't want a boyfriend that goes around saying stuff like that. Shape up!"

"Ok," said Jason.

They walked in silence for a little while, when Musa suddenly stopped.

"What is it Musa?" asked Riven, making them all stop and look at her.

She put a finger to her lips and looked around the sky. They could all tell she was listening intently.

"Did you hear something?" asked Bloom.

"Be quiet," said Musa. After a few moments, she said, "there it was again."

"What?" asked Riven.

Musa got a scared look on her face as she figured out what it was. She said, in a dead whisper, "everyone hide." When she saw them looking at her strangely, "don't ask questions. Just trust me and hide."

"Musa, what's going on?" asked Bloom.

"Not so loud," said Musa. "Just hide before…" Suddenly, a net came flying out of nowhere, straight at Musa. Riven pushed her out of the way just in the nick of time for both of them; another net landed very close to where he had been standing a few seconds before.

"What's going on?" yelled Stella as another net came soaring towards her and Brandon. He shoved her out of the way, but he knew they couldn't keep it up forever.

"Let's get out of here and find a place to hide!" yelled Jason, his arms around Layla. But another net came up from behind him, and trapped them both in it. Bloom flew over to try and help them, but another net caught her just as she reached them. She used as much power as she could muster, but it wasn't enough to break the hold it had on her.

"Bloom!" yelled Sky, running towards her. That was a big mistake. Yet another net trapped him, while simultaneously another one hit Musa and Riven. And within a second, all three couples were gone, just disappeared into thin air.

Flora, Guinevere and Stella couldn't believe it; their friends were gone. They were jerked back to reality as they felt Helia, Timmy and Brandon pull them into a nearby alley, where they could find some cover from the attack. They waited several minutes, but no more nets came soaring at them.

"Now what do we do?" asked Guinevere.

"Continue for the palace and make sure we don't get caught," suggested Brandon.

"Yeah, that's pretty much the only thing we can do," agreed Helia.

"You know, since they already know we're here, it probably wouldn't hurt to go ahead and use our magic," said Stella.

"I think you're right Stella," said Flora. "Shall we power up?"

"Why the heck not?" said Guinevere. The three girls transformed and flew towards the palace, with the boys running behind them. They knew Paritho had to be aware of them now, but they didn't care. They just wanted to get there and find Tecna before something terrible happened to her.

-----------

"Prince Paritho, do you take this lady to be your lawfully wedded wife to have and to hold, to love and to cherish, in sickness…"

"I said, none of that ceremonial jargon," growled Paritho, glaring at the priest.

The priest sighed and said, "do you take her to be your lawfully wedded wife?"

"I do," said Paritho.

"Now Princess Tecna, do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

"I d…" but she was cut off. Paritho groaned and put a hand to his forehead. He could sense that Flora, Guinevere and Stella had all transformed and were flying towards the palace. He could also sense the others had been captured but those three were still a nuisance.

"What is it my lord?" asked Tecna.

"Well Tecna, it seems your friends have come to your rescue," said Paritho.

"Let them try," said Tecna. "They won't be able to break past this palace's excellent defenses."

"I did better on this spell than I thought I did," said Paritho grinning maliciously. "We're wasting time. You three," he barked at the witches. "Find Tecna's friends and make sure they don't get this far."

"It looks like some of them have already been captured," said Darcy, looking inside a ball of energy, acting as a crystal ball. "The rest of them will be no match for us, right girls?"

"Right," said Icy and Stormy together. The three of them disappeared.

"Just skip ahead to me giving her the ring," said Paritho.

"But my lord…" began the priest, but Paritho cut him off.

"Don't question my orders, just do it!" yelled Paritho. He had forgotten that Tecna _had_ _not_ said "I do."

In the shadows, Nirvana smiled thinking, "they won't be actually married, and therefore his spell on her will wear off eventually. Boy, is he going to be in for a shock."

**Author's Note:** Another chapter down, and we have a wedding in progress, but it won't technically go to completion! Is that great or what! One of our favorite fairies won't actually be tying herself to a villain. That ought to make you Tecna fans happy! And don't worry, I'd never let any of our girls marry someone they didn't love, and I certainly wouldn't make them marry a villain. And we have a new ally in Nirvana. She has a part to play in the story and overall series as well. Expect to see more from her! Stay tuned!


	8. Chapter 7: Multiple Battles

Hey everyone! In this chapter, we're going to concentrate mostly on the rest of the girls and their rescue mission. We'll start out with the group in the dungeons, then the one outside the palace, and then we'll get to one person going after Tecna alone. I don't think I have to tell you who that one person is going to be. Happy reading!

**Chapter 7: Multiple Battles**

A loud thud was heard as the Bloom, Sky, Musa, Riven, Jason and Layla landed in a large stone room. The place was completely empty save a few torches on the wall, and a door on one side of the room with a little barred window in it. They groaned as they realized that they were in the palace; they just hadn't gotten there in the manner that they'd wished.

Jason tugged on the door handle, but he and everyone else already knew that he was doing that in vain. It was tightly locked. He said, "does anyone see anything that so much as looks like a way out?"

No one did. He sighed, thinking that he should have known the answer to that question.

"Let's hope the others find a safer road," said Bloom. "They'll have a better shot at getting to Tecna in time than we will."

"In the meantime, how do you propose we get out?" asked Riven indignantly.

"We're just going to have to blast our way out," said Musa. "If Paritho already knows we're here, then what's the point of not using magic? It's the only shot we have and you have to admit I'm right."

"Yeah you're right," said Bloom.

"Stand back," said Layla. "I'm going to give it everything I have." She started to transform, but halfway through, she felt something keeping her from transforming. It was preventing her from reaching her Winx form, rendering much of her power useless, and even cut off her ability to use her Charmix. The experience was becoming too much for her to handle, and she knew she wouldn't be able to hold it much longer. With a shriek, she fell back into her normal form, landing hard on the cold stone floor.

"Layla, are you okay?" asked Jason, kneeling next to her.

"I'm fine," she said rubbing her head. "I don't believe it, something stopped me from transforming. It must be some kind of spell Paritho put up."

"If Paritho thinks he can keep us from using our powers, he's wrong," said Musa, as she started to transform. But the same thing happened to her as did Layla. She felt something pushing her back, keeping her from transforming, making her unable to so much as hear the music she needed that would help her fight. She also gave a shriek, and Riven caught her as she fell back.

"Are you okay?" he asked her as he helped her to stand up.

"Yeah," she said, taking a few seconds to hold onto him and support herself, which made him blush and stutter a little bit. "How are we supposed to get out of here if we can't transform?"

"Nothing can keep me from transforming," said Bloom.

"Don't try it Bloom," said Sky. "You'll just use up your Winx too."

"But Sky…"

"No, but Sky, you have to conserve your strength."

"I'm sorry, but I can't just sit here. We don't have time to just search for another way out or pray that someone or something will come along and rescue us! We're almost out of time now, and we have to do something! I know you don't want me to do this, but what other choice have we?"

Before Sky could stop her, she started to transform. She felt Paritho's spell trying to stop her, but it didn't affect her like it did Musa and Layla. Obviously when he cast this spell, Paritho hadn't counted on it trying to suppress the Dragonfire, and nowhere near was it strong enough to keep her down. She knew if she kept trying to power up, it wouldn't be able to stop her. Not that it wasn't trying. She could feel it holding her back, but it wasn't shoving her down either. She gritted her teeth and fought back, giving grunts of exhaust as she did. But she didn't give up.

"Come on Bloom, you've almost got it," said Musa.

They heard her give a small scream of power, then a bright light flashed through the cell. When they opened their eyes, they saw Bloom in her Winx gear, ready and willing to bust them right out of that cell. She created a large ball of fire in her outstretched hands, which she unleashed at the door, and it being made of solid oak and therefore not fireproof immediately gave way. They were free.

"Way to go Bloom!" said Layla.

As they walked out of their cell, they could feel that Paritho's spell no longer had an effect, which caused Musa and Layla to breathe a very deep sigh of relief. Neither of them had been looking forward to try and fight without their magic. The two fairies instantly transformed and flew to the door into the rest of the castle, hoping but not expecting to have an easy time getting to the upper floors. They were right not to get their hopes up. Guarding the door was a large troll, ready to do whatever it took to keep them in the dungeon.

"Perfect, just perfect," said Riven, pulling out his sword.

"You girls get upstairs and save Tecna," said Sky. "We'll keep this thing busy."

"We can't just leave you here alone," said Bloom.

"If you don't get to Tecna, she'll become Paritho's wife and there won't be anything we can do for her," said Jason. "Get going now!" Before the girls could protest, the boys were running at the troll and attacking it with everything they had.

"They're nuts," said Layla. "Come on, let's go!" The three of them flew out of the dungeons and made their way through the palace, which to their immense disgust was like a labyrinth.

"Musa, can you cast a spell that'll tell us which direction Tecna is in?" asked Bloom.

"No problem," said Musa. She sent a burst of sound waves ahead of her, which resonated throughout the palace. About thirty seconds later, they bounced back at her, which allowed her to hear whatever she wanted in the palace. She could hear the ceremony taking place in the throne room, and she gasped as she heard Paritho speaking to Tecna.

"With this ring, I thee wed," he said. She could hear the triumphant edge to his voice, causing her to give a shudder as she tried not to think of him slipping a wedding ring onto her finger.

"You guys, Paritho's already giving her a ring," she shouted.

"Oh no, they're farther on in the ceremony than I thought," said Layla. "That means they've already said 'I do.'"

"Let's get going," said Bloom, flying so quickly down the corridor that her wings felt like they were on fire. Being the keeper of the Dragonfire, it didn't bother her too much, but she wasn't concerned about that at the moment. She had to keep going, they had to keep going.

She continued, "we have to get to Tecna before the priest officially pronounces her and Paritho man and wife, and before she kisses him." The thought made a huge shudder run down all their spines.

"Follow me!" shouted Musa, taking the lead. She led the way down the corridor, occasionally sending out more sound waves to be sure they were going the right way. She just followed the directions they were coming from, Bloom and Layla following close behind. Every time a wave came back, Musa heard what was happening in the ceremony, and she realized with a jolt that the friar was skipping over some things that he was supposed to be saying.

"Oh no," she said. "Paritho must have told him to skip all the praying and all that stuff that makes a wedding a wedding. He's trying to speed the whole process up."

"Just what we need, more pressure," said Layla. They just kept flying, wondering if they would be able to take Paritho on when they got there.

---------

By this time, Flora, Helia, Stella, Brandon, Timmy and Guinevere had made their way to the palace and were searching for a way in. They considered it lucky that they'd managed to make it all the way there without being attacked or ambushed, and wondered if it was some kind of trick meant to lure them into a false sense of security. But they didn't have time to worry about it, time was of the essence.

They searched the perimeter of the palace but all the entrances were too heavily guarded and they couldn't risk being captured and sent to the dungeons along with the rest of the group.

"Is there a secret passage or some way in?" asked Flora.

"If Tecna were here, she'd be able to figure it out," said Stella.

"What am I, fish food?" asked Timmy, typing into his computer. "There aren't any secret passages, just a bunch of dark spells guarding the place. It'll be hard to sneak in without Paritho knowing."

"There's no way we can do anything without him knowing now," said Guinevere. "He already knows we're here, we wouldn't have been attacked earlier if he didn't know. And since we're already in our Winx forms, why don't we just break in?"

"If we do that, then the guards will be all over us and we won't be able to get to Tecna," said Flora. "We need to sneak in, we can't just burst right in."

"We don't have time to sneak in, it could already be too late," said Guinevere.

"Girls, girls," said Helia, coming in between them. "Before this turns into a catfight, maybe we should just come up with a plan we all agree on. Later when this is over, you two can hash it out, all right?"

"All right," said Flora and Guinevere together.

"Timmy, can you find Tecna where is inside the palace?" asked Brandon.

"Working on it," said Timmy. A moment later, he said, "she's in the throne room with Paritho. And, oh no, they've already started the wedding. She's marrying him even as we speak."

"Then I say we break in and stop Tecna before she kisses him," said Guinevere.

"Why not?" asked Stella.

"All right, on the count of three, we fire at that wall and we fly towards the throne room," said Flora. "One, two, three, Venus Vine Wrap!"

"Sun Blast!"

"Diamond Storm!"

The three attacks were enough to blast a large hole in the wall, big enough for all of them to get through. With Timmy leading the way, they started down the corridor towards the throne room, but something was waiting for them just up ahead. They stopped as they heard evil laughter coming from all around them, and in an instant Icy, Darcy and Stormy appeared, hovering in a circle around them.

"How improper of you girls, don't you know there's a wedding going on?" asked Icy.

"Yeah, I didn't think you girls would turn out to be wedding crashers, particularly not when your friend is the one getting married," said Darcy.

"It is the happiest day of her life after all, you don't want to ruin that for her," said Stormy.

"This isn't the happiest day of her life, it's the biggest mistake of her life," said Stella.

"And you can bet we're not going to let her go through with it," said Guinevere.

"If you pixies think you can ruin this wedding, you're sadly mistaken," said Icy.

"But if you want to make a move, you'd better go ahead and do it, they've already said 'I do,'" said Darcy.

"Let's make this quick, I want to be back in time for the kiss and your ex-friend will officially be on the dark side for life," said Stormy.

Timmy, by this point, was really, really angry at the witches and at Paritho for forcing Tecna into this mess. He ran at them, but got knocked back by a strong blow. The three fairies tried to fight them, but they didn't even faze the three witches. The girls fired several strong attacks at the witches, Flora and Guinevere using all of their power, but it still wasn't enough to get the witches to leave them alone.

"It looks like you're doomed," said Icy.

"No they're not!" yelled a familiar voice. "Dragon Blast!" and they turned to see Bloom flying towards them. The blast threw Icy back against the wall and she struggled and fought to get back up.

"Bloom!" yelled Flora. She saw Musa and Layla flying closely behind her. "Where have you guys been?"

"We just got out of the dungeons," said Layla.

"Riven, Jason and Sky are still down there fighting this huge troll that was guarding the dungeons," said Musa. "They made us come up here and try to save Tecna. But they still need help and fast!"

"Helia and Brandon, can you two go down to the dungeons and help them?" asked Bloom. They nodded and ran in the direction Bloom pointed out to them. Neither of them wanted to leave their girlfriends behind with the witches, but they didn't have much choice, and they knew they wouldn't be much help in a fight against those three.

"Timmy, we'll keep the witches distracted, get to the throne room and save Tecna!" yelled Flora.

He didn't need telling twice. He ran as fast as he could in the direction the witches had come from. He heard Icy begin to fly after him, but then gave a sigh of relief when he heard Bloom stop her. He just kept running and running, glad to not meet anyone as he made his way through the halls. He had a cramp in his side and it was hard for him to breathe, he was running so fast, but he didn't stop. He had to find his girlfriend.

There was a doorway just ahead; that was the entrance to the throne room, he just knew it. Hope rose in his chest as he thought he might get there in time to see his girlfriend. But that hope came crashing down to Earth with a horrible, sickening thud as he heard what the priest was saying.

"I now pronounce you husband and wife, you may kiss the bride."

"No Tecna!" he yelled. But it was too late. When he reached the balcony that overlooked the throne room, he felt as though time had stopped, and so had his heart. He wished that the ground would swallow him whole, bury him away someplace where he could sit and grieve. For the second he got there was the second in which he saw his beloved Tecna kiss Paritho.

**Author's Note:** Okay before you say anything, I know that was a really gross way to end the chapter, with Tecna kissing not just another guy, but one who's a villain. I'm sorry I had to do that, truly I am, but it was necessary. It sets the stage for the next chapter, in which the gang will be introduced to Nirvana, and she'll explain the story in full detail to the. There's going to be a huge battle sequence between the villain and the girls, and Tecna may or may not rejoin the girls. But don't worry, she's not technically married to him because she didn't say "I do," so she has more of a chance of going back to her friends. Besides, I wouldn't let any of our favorite girls tie themselves willingly to evil villains with delusions of grandeur. See you soon!


	9. Chapter 8: Havoc in the Palace

Hey everyone! In this chapter, we have the main battle sequence which is the worst battle I've ever written. That's mostly because 1) I'm no good at writing battles and 2) I'm bored with this particular fic. There are better ones in the series and I'm ready to finish this one, so that I can move on to those and a couple of the others I have. Read this chapter, and there's one more after it. Happy reading!

**Chapter 8: Havoc in the Palace**

Timmy stood there not daring to believe what he was seeing. That could not be Tecna and she could not be kissing a guy she didn't love, much less a villain who wanted to rule over everyone and everything. Finally, he jerked back to his senses and angrily ran down the stairs towards them, ready to pound that guy into a pulp for taking his girl away from him.

"No Tecna!" yelled he as he reached the bottom of the stairs. "Leave her alone!"

"Sorry pal," said Paritho firing a couple attacks at him, which he dodged. "Your girlfriend is now officially my wife. She'll be loyal and obedient to me until the day she dies."

"She can't be!" yelled Timmy. "Let her go now!"

"No!" yelled Paritho. He fired another attack at Timmy, which he just barely managed to dodge. He hit the ground hard and could only gaze up at Paritho, who had his arm around Tecna. "She doesn't even recognize you anymore, and there's nothing you can do about it!"

"Tecna, you have to snap out of it!" yelled Timmy. "It's me, it's Timmy!"

"Timmy?" she asked. For a moment, he could see her eyes turning back to blue, turning into her old self but a moment later she was back under Paritho's control. Paritho looked at her, obviously shocked, but he quickly covered it up.

"It's too late!" yelled Paritho. "She'll never love you the way she did again!" He and Tecna disappeared in a puff of smoke, off to a different location in the palace, leaving a very distraught hero.

Timmy fell to his knees, tears starting to well up in his eyes. He couldn't believe it, he'd lost her.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, the tears beginning to fall down his face. "I'm so sorry I couldn't save you Tecna."

He sat there for what felt like hours, wallowing in the misery Paritho had caused him. Eventually he got to his feet and started back for the hallway he'd come through; he had to tell the others the bad news.

------------

"We have to hurry up!" yelled Sky as he was knocked against the wall. "We're running out of time!"

"Don't you think we know that?" asked Riven, as he swung at the troll with his sword.

"Yeah, we're doing our best here," said Jason. The troll was about to take a swing at him, but a rope appeared out of thin air and wrapped around the troll. It had come from Helia's web glove.

"Are you guys okay?" asked Brandon as he and Helia appeared in the doorway.

"We're fine, how did you get here?" asked Sky.

"We ran, the girls are back there fighting the witches," said Helia, jerking his head back down the corridor. He was grunting in exhaustion, trying his hardest to keep the troll within his hold. But he wasn't strong enough, and with a roar of fury, the troll broke his bonds, jerking Helia forward as he did. He hit the ground with a very hard thud and looked up as the troll bore down on him.

"Back off!" yelled Brandon, jumping in front of his friend and pulling out his sword.

"Keep him distracted," said Riven. While the rest of the boys tried to keep the troll from pummeling them, Riven snuck around the beast and without warning, jumped right on his back. He held on tight as the thing tried to buck him off, and using one hand to hold on and the other to grasp his weapon, stabbed it in the back. It fell to the ground and Riven climbed off, panting a little bit.

"Good job Riven," said Sky. "We probably shouldn't tell Musa you did that though. I doubt she'd approve of you doing stuff like that."

"She might, she might not, she's too unpredictable," said Riven, which the guys took as a sign that he wanted to change the subject. They ran back down the corridor, and found the girls still fighting the witches. But the witches were getting bored with the whole fight.

"Hey Stormy, has the ceremony finished yet?" asked Icy.

"I think so," said Stormy. "Shall we let these losers grieve, then destroy them?"

"Why not?" asked Darcy. "Sounds like a good idea to me."

"Dragon Blast!" yelled Bloom, releasing all her Dragonfire energy on the witches. Whether it was to make the girls suffer or to reenergize themselves only they knew, but the three witches chose that moment to disappear into the blue. They didn't want to have to deal with Bloom in the state she was going to be in after a moment.

"Finally, they're out of our hair," said Musa, drifting back to the ground.

"You guys are okay," said Flora, flying up to the boys and hugging Helia.

"We're fine, have Tecna and Timmy gotten back yet?" asked Jason.

"No," said Layla. "That's why we're worried. They should have been back by now. Let's go to throne room and…Timmy, there you are. Where's Tecna?"

It was then they saw that Timmy was walking towards them in a daze, like he didn't even see them standing there. He didn't seem to know where his feet were taking him, and he wasn't able to answer Layla's question.

"What's up with you?" asked Stella, though she thought she knew the answer already.

He managed to utter, "I got there too late."

"You mean Tecna's married him?" asked Bloom. Slowly and sadly, Timmy nodded.

"No way!" yelled Musa. "Now there's nothing we can do!"

"Yes there is," said a voice from the other end of the hallway. They turned and saw a girl walking towards them. She had deep brown hair, tied up in a bun and was wearing a servant's uniform. "If you had gotten there a few minutes earlier, you would know that she's not actually married to that creep."

"Who are you? What do you want?" asked Bloom suspiciously.

"My name's Nirvana, and before you try and spill out any accusations about being a spy, you should know I'm as much against Paritho as you are. The thing is I'm not a servant; I'm actually this realm's real princess. I was supposed to start at Alfea this year were it not for that power-hungry creep."

"What are you talking about?" asked Guinevere.

"Paritho was never the heir to this throne and never will be. He's the son of a duke, but neither of my parents trusted him. But he wanted Paritho to be King, thankfully, there wasn't much he could do. The rule was that Paritho was only supposed to be King as a last resort, in case something happened to another heir. He decided to overcome that rule by gaining more power and taking over all the realms. He gathered as much power as he could and brought this realm under his control. It was in the state it is now for about three months. Then he went after Tecna's realm, but as you know he never got it because of her parents. This realm returned to normal after that. He stayed in confinement for all these years, but about two months ago he escaped. He immediately came here and stole my powers just as I was getting the hang of them. He spent all the time after that getting his power back and using mine to help him. He brought the entire realm under his control and then what do you think the next move was?"

"He went after Tecna?" asked Timmy.

"Exactly," said Nirvana. "Because of a spell my mother cast when I was a little girl, there's nothing he can do to hurt me, all he could do was steal my powers. So he did and made me work in the kitchens. He threatens me every so often, but he can't do anything and he knows it. I've been sneaking away from work from time to time to spy on him. And I was watching the wedding in the shadows."

"What were you saying about Tecna not actually marrying him?" asked Musa.

"You're gonna love this," she said. "You guys came bursting in the palace, just as they were going through the 'I do's.' He said it, she didn't." All the girls and Timmy gave a sigh of relief. Nirvana continued, "what's better is that the spell on her will wear off instead of becoming permanent. We still have a chance."

"Then let's not waste anymore time," said Bloom. "Do you know where they are?"

"My guess is they're still somewhere in the realm, probably still in the palace," said Nirvana. "There was a moment in there when Tecna definitely recognized you," she gestured at Timmy. "I can guarantee you Paritho is going to figure out why before he does anything else."

"How long do you think it'll take him to remember she didn't take her vow?" asked Layla.

"Knowing Paritho, he might have figured it out already," replied Nirvana. "He's too cunning for his own good. We have to hurry."

------------

Paritho and Tecna were on the other side of the palace from the rest of the Winx Club, in a large room filled with dozens upon dozens of spell books. Tecna was sitting in a chair in the center of the room, waiting for Paritho to do something. He was pacing back and forth in front of her, a very pensive and also very angry look on his face. Her eyes followed his steps and in spite of the spell keeping her from feeling much emotion, she couldn't help but feel nervous at his attitude.

"I know you recognized that boy," said Paritho. "It seemed as though the spell had worn off for a moment and I can tell that my power over you is weakening. I want to know why that happened and why this spell didn't become permanent when I married you."

"You should have listened to the priest," said Tecna.

"What do you mean?" asked Paritho.

"We aren't technically married," said Tecna. "I didn't say 'I do.'"

Paritho looked as though he was ready to blast the whole castle apart. He tried very hard to suppress his rage as he continued speaking, though he was clearly trembling with anger. "I knew a wedding was a bad idea, too many things to go through, way too many complications. But no matter, there's another way, a much easier way that will allow me to overcome this little hurdle."

"What other way my lord?" asked Tecna.

Paritho walked to a bookshelf and pulled down a large spell book. He started looking through the pages, saying, "there's a spell in here, written by the creators of this realm. But by today's standards, it's forbidden. The use of it means exile. When I make myself king of this realm, I'll change that. Ah here it is. This spell will keep you from making your own decisions without anyone else's consent and I know how to tweak it a little bit so that you will stay by my side all times and I will control your every move. I can make you give me your powers, force you to cast a spell that will make them mine forever. That way, I have your magic and you can still be my evil Queen."

"No, you can't do that," said Tecna. He looked up and saw her eyes were back to being blue and she was back in control of herself for the moment. But she was falling back under the spell quickly. "I won't let you. My friends will find me. They'll rescue me."

"They won't," said Paritho. "Now what were you saying about not casting this spell?"

"Nothing my lord," said Tecna, now back under the spell and her eyes back to that awful shade of red. "By all means, go ahead."

"That's better. Now hold still my dear. It will all be over in a moment."

He raised his hands to cast the spell when he heard something coming from outside the door. He lowered his hands and walked towards it, but he didn't need to. A second later, it was blown off its hinges and sent cascading to the other wall. He covered his eyes against the bright light created by the energy beam that sent the door across the room. When he opened his eyes, he saw the Winx Club and the heroes standing in the doorway, ready to get Tecna out of there.

"You just won't give up will you?" asked Paritho.

"No we won't," said Bloom. "Tecna's our friend and we're not leaving without her."

"She's not going anywhere," said Paritho. "Antarsta runcala!" Suddenly, they were all pinned against the wall, none able to move. The boys, Timmy in particular, tried to get out of their bind, but they couldn't even move one finger. The girls tried to use their magic to get out, Flora and Guinevere using their full magic. Guinevere even prayed to her ancestor Isabella and asked for help, but that didn't work either.

Paritho laughed at them as he watched them struggle to get free and said, "There's nothing you can do. Why don't you just give up?"

"Or why don't you pick on someone your own size," said Tecna.

Paritho turned to look at her, very shocked and even more surprised. His spell had finally worn off and she was back to her normal self. She'd always had faith that her friends were going to get there in time, and right now, she didn't want any of them, particularly not Timmy to get hurt.

"Tecna be careful," said Nirvana. "You know how strong he is."

"Remember Nirvana," said Tecna. "I've got new powers of my own. And now looks like the best time to give them a test run." She transformed and fired her strongest attack at Paritho. He absorbed it as though it was nothing more than a gentle breeze.

"You can't defeat me Tecna," he said. "You're just a girl."

"You're gonna pay for that," she said. They fired at each other, each one trying to outdo the others attack. They were so evenly matched that for awhile it looked as though neither would win and the battle would go on forever. But then Paritho fired an attack at Tecna, which sent her colliding through the wall. She ended up on the other side, on the grounds outside the palace.

"Tecna!" yelled Timmy.

Paritho laughed a cold, mirthless laugh as he walked outside and stood over Tecna. He watched as she tried to get up, most of her Winx gone from the fight. She was tired and weak and he knew it. "You girls just don't know when to give up, do you? Why don't you? You know you can't win."

"I can and I will," said Tecna as she stood up.

"Believe what you want," said Paritho, raising his hands for another attack. Tecna however, had had enough. She was so angry at him for trying to conquer her realm and for trying to take over her mind. She didn't want anything more to do with him. She didn't want him to go near her and her friends again. She felt her power rising as she let out a big burst of energy. Paritho gasped, realizing this was too much power for him to absorb and he fell back against the ground. Back in the room, the others fell to the ground, as the spell Paritho had put on them wore off.

"Let's all attack him while he's still down," said Guinevere.

"Wait just one moment," said Nirvana. She walked up to Paritho and said, "I think you have something that's mine. Powerus colletta." A large beam of light came soaring out of Paritho's heart and spiraled around Nirvana. She was lifted a few feet off the ground and she transformed. After a few seconds, they saw her wearing a white miniskirt and a red camisole. She was also wearing a pair of red, ankle length boots and a gold necklace with a ruby in the center. Her hair was still up in its bun and her wings were like white angel's wings. As she got her powers back, the supreme power of Angelicas, which had also been stolen, returned to her and she was ready to unleash it on Paritho.

"Now let's all attack together!" yelled Bloom. "Dragon Blast!"

"Sun Blast!"

"Venus Vine Wrap!"

"Sonic Blast!"

"Digital Blast!"

"Tidal Wave!"

"Diamond Storm!"

"Heaven's Charm!"

All these attacks were too much for Paritho. By the time the last one had hit him, he wasn't strong enough to lift one arm. He fell to the ground and lost consciousness, while the girls all cheered their lungs out. They had won.

**Author's Note:** Okay, we have one more chapter to go before the end of the story. I know you guys may say that I'm rushing this story a bit, and I'm sorry for that, but I've never particularly liked this one, and I've gotten really bored with writing it. The next chapter is also going to be relatively short; I just need it to wrap things up. So, I'll see you in a few days when I get a spare moment to post again. Bye!


	10. Chapter 9: Reconciliations

Hey everyone! This is the last chapter of this fic, and boy am I glad this one is done. I didn't enjoy writing it as much as I did the other two. I would have added this chapter into the last one, but that would've made it too long, so I had to do a little bit of adding to make this one long enough. It's both a happy and a sad ending, happy for Tecna and the girls, but sad for Nirvana, and you'll find out why in just a few minutes. Happy reading!

**Chapter 9: Reconciliations**

The girls all drifted back to the ground, exhausted from what they had just been through. None of them were able to bear their own weight for a few minutes, leaning on each of their boyfriends for support. Tecna, now knowing how Flora and Guinevere had felt after getting their powers, was unconscious before her feet even touched the grass. Timmy was right there to catch her before she hit the ground completely.

"Tecna!" yelled Timmy. He knelt down next to her and saw that she had just fainted. Her pulse was normal and she was breathing regularly. He picked her up and held her close, afraid to lessen his grip.

Nirvana, the only one left with any power, drifted back up a few feet into the sky. Even though Paritho had been defeated, the realm still looked like it could use a little bit of patching up.

"Please return to normal," she whispered, holding her hands out in front of her. A warm glow radiated out from them and began to spread over everyone and everything. The girls all closed their eyes as they felt the warmth wash over them, bringing strength to their tired forms. The boys just took it as reassurance that nothing bad would happen for a little while, but they knew better than to hold their breath.

"Hey, check it out," said Stella. She was looking over the realm and they all saw that it was going back to normal. It was a beautiful place that really deserved the name Angelicas. The sky lost its dark color and became a shade of periwinkle blue with many clouds drifting lazily back and forth across it. The sun emerged from behind the clouds, which in turn led to the people coming out of their homes to see what was going on. They were amazed to see what was happening. The sun hadn't shown in so long, and now more changes were taking place. The birds started singing and the flowers started blooming. The palace, which had been in a state of decay, was restored to its glory, a large building of glittering alabaster.

Nirvana drifted back to the ground and had to resist the urge to pass out like Tecna had. But she had to stay awake, she had to make the announcement to their people that there was no more evil left.

"People of Angelicas," she said, flying to meet them. "Paritho has fallen, your princess has returned, and our home is back to normal, thanks to these wonderful fairies and heroes." The people all started cheering and applauding for the Winx Club and their boyfriends. The girls all waved and the boys just grinned.

She continued, "we celebrate our newfound freedom at sunset!" There was even more cheering at that, and she couldn't help but smile as she thought of the party to come up, even though she was too tired to help plan it.

"Ooh a party, let's stick around," said Stella, but she knew they wouldn't be able to.

"Guards!" said Nirvana. Two guards appeared in front of her. "Take him away," she gestured at Paritho, still trying to get up and fight.

"Yes princess," said one of them. They carried Paritho to the dungeons, with him struggling to break free of their grip.

"Thank you, all of you," said Nirvana.

"No problem," said Bloom. "Are you still going to attend Alfea?"

"I'm going to make sure things are fine here, ensure my parents are all right, see my boyfriend and then I'm going to start Alfea. I have to admit I'm looking forward to it."

"You'll love it," said Stella. "We'll get to do all the coolest stuff. We'll show you the…" Musa cut her off.

"Give her the tour once she's there Stella," said Musa. "We have to get back to Magix."

"Won't you stay for the festivities? They are in your honor," said Nirvana.

"I wish we could, but we really should get back and tell Ms. Faragonda what's been happening," said Bloom. "Just have a good time without us and tell us about it when you come to Alfea."

"All right, I'll see you in a few days," said Nirvana.

The group boarded the ship and Jason began to set the coordinates back to Magix, but stopped when he heard Timmy speak.

"Don't you think we should go back to Tecna's realm before we do anything else?" he asked. "Her parents are as worried as can be."

"He's got a point," said Layla.

"All right, we'll go back to Zenith for a few minutes, then back to Alfea," said Jason.

As the ship took off, the girls looked back at Angelicas, which was quickly disappearing beneath them. They had just enough time to see Nirvana waving goodbye to them before they lost sight of it altogether.

As soon as they were gone, Nirvana flew as fast as she could to the home of her boyfriend, Carlos. Throughout all of Paritho's tenure, she had been trapped in the palace, unable to get out, see any of her friends or see him. But she was in for a very rude shock. When she got there, she found out that he was gone.

"Where is he?" she asked, searching all over the house for him. But there was no one there.

Just as she was about to give up the search, she saw something on a nearby table. It was a letter with her name on it. She took it and opened it. It said:

_My sweet angel,_

_I'm sorry that I have not been able to see you these last few weeks, but I can't risk your safety by sneaking past Paritho to see you. I miss you greatly and I worry about you even more. I can't bear to think of what might be happening to you in that awful place. I know Paritho can't do anything to you, but that doesn't stop the fears or the nightmares I have. I love you Nirvana, remember that._

_But I must also look to my family's safety. I'm taking them away for a little while and am going to enroll in a school that will teach me how to fight better so that I can save you. I don't know how long I'll be gone, but know that I will never give up, and I will come back for you someday._

_I can't risk leaving this by the palace for Paritho to find, so I'm going to leave it here in the hope that you might be able to sneak out and come looking for me. Don't worry Nira. Everything will be all right, I promise. Keep your chin up. We'll be together again soon._

_I love you,_

_Carlos_

Nirvana had to fight back tears as she reread the letter. She held it close to her heart as she realized that she had no idea where her boyfriend was or if she'd ever see him again. What would happen when he found out that the danger was over and there was no need for the heroics he was training for? What if, even worse, he came back for her after she left for Alfea?

"Nirvana?" asked a voice. She turned around to see her friends Gabrielle and Belladonna looking at her concernedly.

"Are you all right?" asked Gabrielle.

"No she's not," said Belladonna. "I know a broken heart when I see one."

"Read this," said Nirvana, holding up the note.

Belladonna took it and read it aloud. She looked up and said, "my suspicions are justified."

"What am I going to do?" she asked. "I only got through these past few weeks on the hope that we'd be together again when Paritho was defeated."

"He'll be back, you'll see," said Gabrielle.

Nirvana nodded, but her mind was on her absent boyfriend for the rest of the night. She just locked herself in her room and she took no part in any of the celebrations that were going on around her.

------------

It was only a few minutes back to Zenith, which the girls were grateful for. The other reason they didn't stay for the celebration on Angelicas was they were so tired that all they wanted was to crawl into bed, but they knew they had to grin and bear it for just a little while longer. Tecna still hadn't woken, and Timmy was beginning to wonder what he was going to say to her parents when they asked what had happened to her. He kept going over possible explanations in his head, but knew that telling the truth would be the best course of action to take. All the same, he didn't like what telling that story involved, particularly not the part where he'd seen his girl kiss another guy.

When they landed the ship in Zenith a moment later, they saw Tecna's parents standing outside the palace, waiting for them. Timmy walked out carrying Tecna, the rest of the group followed. Her mother turned pale with fear and ran to her daughter, placing a hand on her shoulder and shaking her gently. But she didn't wake.

"What happened to her?" she asked.

"She's ok," said Timmy. "She just fainted after the battle against Paritho."

At that moment, there was a groaning noise, which meant that Tecna was starting to wake up. She cuddled up closer to Timmy as she did, which made him blush a little bit, but he didn't change his position. After another minute, she opened her eyes and saw her friends and parents gathered around her.

"Are you ok Tec?" asked Musa.

"I'm fine," she replied, blinking her eyes, trying to get them to focus. "Where are we? Where's Nirvana? Where's Paritho?" She started to get a little panic stricken as she realized he wasn't there and might be ready to attack again, but Timmy was there for her in an instant.

"Don't worry Tec, you took him down," he said soothingly. She blushed a little bit as she felt his arms around her, but didn't object to it. He put her down at that moment however, and she took a deep breath as she turned around to face her parents.

"Thank goodness you're safe my dear," said her mother, reaching out to hug her daughter. "We were so worried."

"Relax mother, I'm all right," said Tecna. "Now about my being a princess…"

"I understand how shocked you were," said her father. "I know we should have told you when you were younger but we thought we could protect you by keeping you away from the palace."

"You were only doing what you thought was right," said Tecna.

"Do you want to be the princess?" asked her mother.

"It'll take some getting used to, but I think I can handle it," said Tecna, knowing as well as the others did that it was her destiny.

"Good, now back to Alfea," said her mother. "Have a good time."

Tecna hugged her parents and headed back on the ship. As they were flying back to Magix, Timmy walked up to Tecna and said, "I managed to fix the clasp on this last night." He held up her locket and put it around her neck again. For him, it was the best feeling in the world to see her wearing it again. It showed that she was his and no one else's.

"Thank you Timmy," she said hugging him.

"Are you sure you're ok after all that's happened?" he asked, his arms still around her.

"I'm fine," she answered. "It'll just take a little while to get used to being a princess."

"And it'll take me a little while to get used to being the boyfriend of a princess," said Timmy. Tecna looked at him, a surprised look on her face. Seeing this, he said, "that is, if you want to be my girlfriend."

"I do," she said.

"He grinned at her and said, "Just promise me one thing."

"Anything," she said.

"Next time you say 'I do,' try not to be saying it to an evil man who wants to conquer all the realms. Promise?"

Tecna laughed and said, "Promise."

He gazed down at her and said, "I love you."

She smiled back at him and said, "I love you too." He put his hand on the side of her face, leaned in and kissed her softly. When they pulled back, she laid her head on his shoulder, and they spent the rest of the journey back holding hands. Both were glad her adventure had ended.

----------

Ms. Faragonda looked out her office window and saw the ship land in front of Alfea. The girls and the boys all said goodbye to each other and as they walked back up to the school, she heard the girls bringing up the subject of more dates for Guinevere. The fairy of diamonds didn't seem quite so eager on the idea. She smiled and said, "enjoy yourselves now girls, because it's only going to get worse."

**Author's Note:** Okay, that's another story down. I'm not going to do the next one for a few days mostly because I need to concentrate on my schoolwork, and I want to work on a couple of the other stories I have up here. I will go ahead and tell you that the next one is going to be about Musa, and I'll leave you to guess what the plot for that one is. See you soon!


End file.
